South Korea and the Democratic People 's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Tuesday ended without much progress preliminary military talks aimed at discussing holding high-level military talks, planning to meet Wednesday for another round, the defense ministry here said.
In their first major contact following the artillery exchange near a disputed maritime border between the two Koreas in November last year, they failed to agree on agenda to be discussed at the proposed high-level talks, according to the ministry.
The nine-hour marathon meeting, wrapped up at 7:10 p.m. local time in the truce village of Panmunjom, was aimed at deciding on the venue, date and agenda of the high-level military talks the two Koreas seek to hold later. Col. Moon Sang-gyun of South Korea and Col. Ri Son-kwon of the DPRK led the delegation from the two sides.
The Defence Ministry said the talks bogged down as Seoul officials insisted the high-level talks must discuss the DPRK's alleged sinking of a South Korean warship and shelling of an inhabited South Korean island, which met with Pyongyang's objection.
The Ministry said the DPRK officials instead suggested discussing "halting military acts" that can be considered as mutual provocations from both sides, such as the two very incidents that altogether killed 50 South Koreans.
Pyongyang has denied its responsibility for the fatal warship sinking and claimed its artillery shelling was for self-defense against South Korean and U.S. forces then engaged in a large-scale drill near the tense border off the west coast of the peninsula.
"(The DPRK) claimed focusing only on the sinking of Cheonan and shelling of Yeonpyeong Island amounts to rejecting the high-level military talks," Seoul's Defence Ministry said in a press release.
The South Korean side reiterated their stance that addressing the two incidents should come before discussions on any other issues get underway, and agreed to hold another round of colonel- level talks in Panmunjom Wednesday morning as requested by Pyongyang, the defense ministry added.
Previously dismissive of recent calls from its northern neighbour for dialogue, Seoul accepted last month Pyongyang's proposal to hold talks to discuss pending military issues after the Chinese and U.S. leaders urged inter-Korean dialogue at their recent summit meeting in Washington.
Seoul also proposed separate inter-Korean talks aimed at confirming Pyongyang's commitment to ending its nuclear program. Seoul has been opposed to reopening the six-party nuclear talks also involving China and the United States, before Pyongyang takes responsible measures for acts Seoul has denounced as provocative.
Prior to the working-level talks earlier in the day, a high- ranking foreign ministry official voiced reservations about the prospects of Tuesday's colonel-level talks in a background briefing for foreign correspondents based here, saying the government was not entirely convinced of just how serious Pyongyang really is in calling for dialogue.
The official said on condition of anonymity that the process at the talks of persuading Pyonyang into agreeing to take measures Seoul wants in place and promising no recurrences will at best be a difficult one.