Seoul calls for Pyongyang to respond to overture for talks

SEOUL, Korea, Republic Of South Korea on Friday urged North Korea to accept its offers for talks as Pyongyang continued to ignore Seoul’s proposal for a military meeting to ease animosities along their tense border.

South Korea’s Defence Ministry said it has become difficult to hold the meeting Seoul had originally proposed for Friday and called for the North to “quickly accept” the overture for talks.

“Easing the military tension between the South and North and restoring the military dialogue channel are very urgent tasks for peace and stability in the Korean Peninsula,” the ministry said in a statement.

North Korea has yet to respond to South Korea’s proposal to hold the military meeting and a separate meeting next month to resume the temporary reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.

If realized, the talks would be the first inter-Korean dialogue since December 2015. Ties between the Koreas have worsened since over North Korea’s expanding nuclear and missile programs, but South Korea’s new liberal President Moon Jae-in, who took office in May, has expressed a desire to reach out to the North.

Despite North Korea apparently passing over the Friday meeting, some experts say Pyongyang is likely to agree to the military talks at some point. It has been calling for the suspension of loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts the two Koreas began at the border after the North’s fourth nuclear test in January 2016. It’s possible that the North is taking time mulling its options and could potentially make a counterproposal seeking more concessions from the South in exchange for opening dialogue, the experts say.