The cross-border communication line appears to have been severed again a day after the North called off planned inter-Korean talks at the last minute due to irreconcilable differences over the level of chief delegates.
The North on Wednesday did not answer calls made from the South at around 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., the Unification Ministry said. The Red Cross channel running through the border truce village of Panmunjeom was cut off in March amid military tensions and restored last Friday to facilitate their meeting.
But the much-trumpeted talks were scrapped late Tuesday after Seoul rejected Pyongyang’s demand that its unification minister be the chief negotiator.
The North complained that the South’s Vice Unification Minister Kim Nam-shik was unfit to be the counterpart to Kang Ji-yong, a senior official at the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea.
The South initially suggested minister-level talks between Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae and Kim Yang-gon, head of the United Front Department in the North’s ruling Workers’ Party. But it instead proposed Kim Nam-shik after the North reaffirmed during working-level consultations on Sunday that it would not send Kim Yang-gon.
They were expected to discuss resumptions of the Gaeseong industrial park and tours to Mount Geumgang, reunions of separated families and other stalled joint projects.
The cancellation of the meeting, which would have been the first high-level government dialogue since 2007, upended the fresh mood for cross-border reconciliation following years of mistrust and animosity.
The telephone link had been a vital source of communication between the two Koreas.
“We could not present the result the people expected because the meeting foundered,” Ryoo told reporters early in the day.
As Pyongyang said it was “postponing” its plan to send officials, he called for a return to dialogue while expressing doubts for a new round of talks anytime soon.
“I think it was one of the pains required for us to move toward new inter-Korean relations. … North Korea will also have to show a sincere attitude to advance to the new inter-Korean relations,” the minister added.
But the Unification Ministry made clear that it would not make a new proposal for talks with different delegates.
“Though the governmental meeting planned for today was dead, our stance is that we can always hold talks with the current delegations from both sides if North Korea changes its position,” a senior official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
koreaherald@heraldcorp.com
