Two Koreas agree on third summit
• North’s and South’s leaders to meet in September
North and South Korea agreed on Monday to hold a summit in the North in September, another step towards boosting cooperation, even as doubts grow over efforts to end the North’s nuclear weapons programme.
Officials meeting in the truce village of Panmunjom, in the demilitarised zone that separates the two Koreas, reached an agreement on a meeting of the countries’ leaders in Pyongyang.
No date was announced for what will be the third meeting in 2018 between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
They first met in April in Panmunjom, a remarkable thaw in ties after rising tension and fears of war over the North’s development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. They agreed Moon would visit the North’s capital in the northern autumn, but the pair met again in May in an unannounced meeting at Panmunjom.
No details on an agenda for the September talks were announced, but the two Koreas have been discussing a range of issues, from a possible peace declaration to joint economic and infrastructure projects.
The progress between the two Koreas comes as North Korea and the US are struggling to agree on how to bring about the North’s denuclearisation, after Kim vowed to work towards that goal at a landmark summit in June with US President Donald Trump.
US officials said that North Korea had yet to agree to a timeline for eliminating its nuclear arsenal or to disclose its size, which US estimates have put at 30 to 60 warheads.
After Monday’s talks, Ri Son Gwon, chairman of a North Korean committee aiming for the “peaceful reunification” of the peninsula, told his South Korean counterpart, unification minister Cho Myoung-gyon, it was important to clear “obstacles” preventing inter-Korean relations from moving forward.
“If the issues that were raised at the talks aren’t resolved, unexpected problems could emerge and the issues that are already on the schedule may face difficulties,” Ri said.
One issue that has angered North Korea has been the case of a dozen North Korean restaurant workers who came to the South in 2016 via China.
The North says they were abducted by the South and should be returned, and has raised the possibility of the issue creating an obstacle to the reunion of some families divided by the 1950/1953 Korean War, planned for next week.
Cho did not say if North Korea had raised the case of the restaurant workers on Monday, merely saying it had not brought up new issues.
“There were mentions that if there are problems to be resolved by both sides, on humanitarian issues or for the development of inter-Korean relations, we should do it,” the minister told reporters.
Cho said the two sides had exchanged views on the North’s denuclearisation and on a peace mechanism to replace the armistice that ended fighting during the Korean War.
Moon and Kim agreed during their first summit to push for a declaration of an end to the Korean War together with the US in 2018, but Washington has said it will only be possible after the North abandons its nuclear programme.
The North’s state media has accused the South of caring only about the views of the US and failing to take practical steps to advance inter-Korean relations.
South Korea hopes to restart efforts on a cross-peninsula railway and a joint industrial park but has been cautious about major projects due to sanctions engineered by the US over the North’s nuclear and missile programmes.
THERE WERE MENTIONS THAT IF THERE ARE PROBLEMS TO BE RESOLVED BY BOTH SIDES … WE SHOULD DO IT