North Korea Delays Working-Level Talks

North Korea Delays Working-Level Talks. August. 13, 2007 07:08. sunshade@donga.com myzodan@donga.com.

The August 13 working-level talks between the two Koreas in Gaeseong, suggested by the government in a preparation for the second summit meeting, will be postponed since the North turned down the government’s offer yesterday.

Spokesman of the Unification Ministry Kim Nam-sik stated yesterday, “The North informed that it will notify us of the schedule of the working-level dialogue on August 13 through the direct phone line to Panmunjom, but they stopped short of explaining the reason for the delay.”

Kim noted, “The North asked us for a list of the people in our delegation and of the reporters covering the working-level talks, saying, they need the list to prepare for the talks, and we handed the list over to the North. The date for the working-level talks will be decided after North Korea informs us of their intentions.”

The government suggested to North Korea that the two sides hold a working-level talk on August 13 to discuss the agenda, the representatives and their number, communications, and reporting but North Korea has so far refused to comment on that.

Meanwhile, the two Koreas agreed to have 180-strong delegations of the two countries. 180 is about the same size that the two sides had for the first inter-Korea summit talks held in Pyongyang in 2000. A government official said, “We initially asked the North to have a delegation of 200-220 members, but North Korea rejected the idea, saying the size of the delegation should not be greater than that of the 2000 summit talks, given the accommodations. So the two sides agreed on 180 members.”

The inter-Korean economic cooperation issue is expected to be a major agenda topic for the second summit talk.

The government formed a task force led by Deputy Finance Minister Lim Young-rok and is gathering various economic cooperation agendas from ministries. The government also asked economic organizations and some large companies to come up with ideas for inter-Korean economic cooperation agendas. Some in government say that the government is pushing forward with a massive hog raising plan with the North.