Talks on resuming inter-Korean tours fail
0 
South Korea and the Democratic People ' s Republic of Korea (DPRK) held Monday working-level talks on resuming cross-border tours but failed to narrow differences on major issues including ensuring security for South Korean tourists, Seoul's Ministry of Unification said.
The South Korean delegation crossed the heavily fortified border earlier Monday for a one-day meeting involving six officials from the two Koreas, which started with a 45-minute morning session at 10 a.m. local time (0100 GMT) and finished at 3: 30 p.m. (0630 GMT), according to the ministry.
The south side reiterated its position that the two sides, before reopening tours, need to draw up measures to ensure safety of its tourists and prevent recurrences and launch a thorough investigation into a shooting incident that killed a South Korean tourist in 2008, which resulted in the complete suspension of the tour, the ministry said.
"We made it clear that we want the three conditions -- an investigation, prevention of recurrences and safety measures -- to be met, and strongly urged North Korea (the DPRK) to respond to our demands," Kim Nam-sik, the head of the Seoul delegation, told reporters in a briefing.
But the DPRK said the issues Seoul has brought up were already resolved and suggested resuming tours to Kaesong on March 1 and tours to a resort at Mount Kumgang on April 1, he said.
"The North reiterated its pervious stance that the shooting incident occurred due to negligence on the part of the tourist," Kim said, adding that the DPRK representatives expressed regret over the death.
Park Wang-ja, a female tourist in her 50's, was shot to death in July 2008 by a DPRK sentinel after she wandered into a restricted area, but Seoul's request for an on-sight probe was rejected by Pyongyang to much outcry here.
Tours to the historic border town of Kaesong was also suspended in the same year, rapidly souring inter-Korean ties that were already freezing since South Korean President Lee Myung-bak took office earlier that year with a hard-line approach to the DPRK.
After about 19 months of hiatus and in what many in Seoul saw as a peace gesture or an attempt to seek practical interests, the DPRK in early January proposed to hold talks on reopening tours.
Seoul previously said the DPRK's acceptance of its demands would not automatically lead to the resumption of the tours.
Go to Forum >>0 Comments