South and North Korean negotiators have been wrestling over where to meet prior to the formal inter-Korean talks, first ever since the President Lee Myung-bak government was launched in February last year, sources said Tuesday afternoon.
The two sides failed to narrow their differences on the meeting place, agenda and the number of delegates in the talks of liaison officials, sources of North Korea affairs in Seoul said. "The South has insisted on the office of the Kaesong Industrial District Management Committee of the South, while the North on the office of the Central Special Development Bureau which is governing the complex in the border town of Kaesong by the North," said an official, who refused to be identified.
As a result, the two sides failed to open their formal bilateral talks, which had been expected to be held early in the morning Tuesday.
The South had conveyed its position that the talks should handle the issue of an employee of Hyundai Asan, who the North claimed has been detained in the North for denouncing the North, while instigating Northern workers in the Kaesong complex to defect to the South. Seoul has also called on the North to inform of the list of North delegates and to coordinate on what issue the two sides would discuss, the sources said.