North Korea has rejected an appeal for face-to-face military talks, in a further blow to the efforts by the South’s new president to engage with Kim Jong-un’s government.
There has been no official response from Pyongyang to the proposal for tomorrow’s negotiations , which were intended to reduce military tensions and reconnect a military hotline between the two sides. But the North’s leading state-run newspaper scorned as “nonsense” the idea of improving the relationship between the two Koreas.
“Ditching confrontation and hostility is a precondition for opening the door for the two Koreas' reconciliation and unity,” said a leading article in Rodong Sinmun (Workers’ Newspaper).
On Monday, the South proposed a meeting in Panmunjom, the border crossing point where the talks which brought an end to the 1950-53 Korean War were held. The South Korean Red Cross separately called for a new round of reunions between elderly people who were separated from one another by the division of the two countries at that time.
If the North had agreed, it would have represented the first such contact between the two sides since December 2015 and a reward for the efforts of South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in.
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The agenda would have included the removal of the powerful loudspeakers which both sides use to broadcast propaganda across the demilitarised zone separating them. Officials of Mr Moon’s government were preparing for the talks, in the faint hope that Pyongyang might at the last minute signal its agreement.
“The preparations for the talks are under way without a hitch,” said Moon Sang-gyun, a spokesman for South Korea’s defence ministry earlier in the day. “I would say we’re awaiting the North’s official position,”
The Korea Herald quoted an unnamed official of the unification ministry, who said: “There is no deadline for our efforts to resolve the problem through dialogue. Despite the series of ups and downs, we have to return to the spirit of past inter-Korean peace agreements and take the path for building trust.”
Since being elected in May, Mr Moon has attempted to reconcile the necessity of stern words against North Korean missile tests with his promises to engage directly with Mr Kim.
CNN quoted United States officials as saying that the North appears to be preparing for another long range missile test, following its first successful launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile early this month.