NK cuts Panmunjeom hotline
A businessman with a factory at the Gaeseong Industrial Complex covers his face during a press conference in Seoul, Wednesday. / Korea Times photo by Cho Young-ho
By Kim Tae-gyu
North Korea did not answer calls made by the South on the communication line that runs through the truce village of Panmunjeom, the Ministry of Unification said Wednesday.
Seoul placed a call at 9 a.m., and another at 4. p.m., but the North failed to answer, a ministry official said.
"The latest move reflects the cancellation of talks late Tuesday. However, there is a need to wait and see how the situation will unfold," said the official.
The two countries were supposed to hold the first government-to-government talks in six years Wednesday in Seoul but they were called off due to a standoff on the status of their delegation leaders.
Pyongyang unofficially hinted Wednesday that it wanted Seoul to make a concession to create an atmosphere for talks.
“After our active requests, the conditions for talks are being created. It is crucial to make an atmosphere for talks,” said the North Korean ruling Worker’s Party newspaper, Rodong Shinmun.
“Toward that end, the two are required to have a proper attitude and position for the talks. They should not have animosity or suspicions against each other if they genuinely want talks.”
It urged Seoul to stop activities provoking Pyongyang and requested to allow to allow its citizens to participate in a joint event to commemorate the 13th anniversary of the June 15 Joint Declaration in 2000 to be held by the North.
The newspaper and other media outlets, however, did not deliver the news on the cancellation of the inter-governmental talks by the North due to a dispute on the status of delegation leaders.
However, the Unification Ministry said that it would not follow Pyongyang’s lead.
Asked whether or not the South is ready to change members of its delegation in tandem with the North’s demand, an official of the ministry said that it has no plan to do so.
“Our basic principle is that we can resume talks if the North accepts our delegation without changing its. The North should show a sincere attitude,” the official told reporters on the condition of anonymity.
As leader of its five-member delegation, Pyongyang planned to send Kang Ji-young, a director at the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, its entity dealing with cross-border affairs.
Seoul proposed Vice Unification Minister Kim Nan-shik as its chief negotiator. In response, the North demanded that Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae represent the team, a demand that was not accepted.
The North then called off the first meeting held under the new stewardships of the two Koreas ― President Park Geun-hye of the South and the North’s leader Kim Jong-un.