KOREAS END TALKS WITHOUT ANY PEACE BREAKTHROUGH

SEOUL: North and South Korea ended two days of extensive high-level talks at a North Korean border town yesterday without issuing a statement or scheduling another meeting, leaving a mixed signal about reconciliation efforts they’ve made since stepping away from a military standoff in August.

No major breakthrough had been expected from the meeting of vice-ministerial officials in the town of Kaesong, but analysts had considered the talks a sign that the rivals were working to keep alive an atmosphere of dialogue, something they have often failed to do in the wake of conflict. After the talks stretched into the evening yesterday, as they had done on Friday, they ended without any statement from either side. The countries were also unable to fix a date for a further meeting, South Korean officials said. South Korea was hoping to discuss at the meeting more reunions between ageing family members separated by the 1950-53 Korean War. Analysts had said cash-strapped North Korea might seek the South’s commitment to restart joint tours to its scenic Diamond Mountain resort that were suspended by Seoul in 2008 following the shooting death of a South Korean tourist there by a North Korean soldier. Expectations for the meeting dropped last month when both sides in preparatory negotiations settled for a meeting at the vice-ministerial level. This likely ruled out discussions on more important issues. Negotiations between the rivals, separated by the world’s most heavily armed border, were considered an improvement upon the situation in August, when they threatened each other with war over land mine explosions that maimed two South Korean soldiers.