DPRK, ROK start series of high-level talks
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea started a series of high-level talks on Monday to implement the April DPRK-ROK summit agreement.
The ROK’s Yonhap news agency reported that the talks, which will last through the week, include the topics of bilateral economic cooperation and the details of family reunions.
These will be the first DPRKROK talks on economic cooperation. The two neighbors have previously held talks on military affairs, sports exchanges and humanitarian issues.
According to the ROK’s Ministry of Unification, the two sides plan to have a meeting on Tuesday at Peace House, an ROK administrative building at the border village of Panmunjom, on linking and modernizing cross-border railway links.
The two sides are also set for separate talks on road-related cooperation at Tongilgak, a Panmunjom pavilion on the DPRK side, on Thursday, followed by a meeting on forestry cooperation on July 4.
It remains a question as to how substantively Seoul will discuss economic partnerships with Pyongyang, after US President Donald Trump declared earlier that he would maintain long-standing economic sanctions on the DPRK, ROK media reported.
Meanwhile, the ROK is sending a team of officials and technical experts this week to the Mount Kumgang resort on the DPRK’s east coast to check the conditions for a family reunion event scheduled for Aug 20-26.
A process to select those who will meet their long-separated family members also began on Monday.
Yonhap said tens of thousands of ROK citizens had registered as hopeful participants to reunite with family members after being separated for decades by the 1950-53 Korean War, but only 100 will be able to get together with their families at the August event.
Under the Panmunjom Declaration signed in April, the two sides also agreed to encourage exchanges, cooperation, visits and contacts at all levels.
To resolve humanitarian issues, Seoul and Pyongyang will hold a reunion of families separated by the ROK-DPRK border around the Aug 15 Liberation Day, a date to celebrate the Korean Peninsula’s liberation from the 1910-45 Japanese colonial rule.
As Monday also marked the 68th anniversary of the outbreak of the 1950-53 Korean War, ROK Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon said the two neighbors are discussing the possible relocation of the DPRK’s long-range artillery systems away from the border, as they forge ahead with steps to lower tensions.