North Korean leader Kim Jong-il rejected South Korea's proposal at this week's summit for troop cuts along their heavily fortified border, the South's defense minister said yesterday.
"The issue was off the table, as Chairman Kim Jong-il said it was still premature to have it discussed," minister Kim Sang-joo said.
Reports before the summit in Pyongyang had said President Roh Moo-hyun would push for the complete withdrawal of troops and weapons from the frontier buffer zone.
The 4km demilitarized zone (DMZ) surrounding the borderline was established after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice. Only light infantry were supposed to patrol inside it, but scores of guard posts have sprung up.
Kim accompanied Roh to the summit, becoming the first South Korean defense chief to visit the communist state. The two nations remain technically at war.
The defense minister, quoted by Yonhap news agency, also said he raised the issue of South Korean prisoners of war during private talks with his North Korean counterpart Kim Il-chol.
"I focused on the POW issue. I asked for the North to consider the confirmation of their fate, exchange of letters, reunion with families [in the South], and eventual repatriation as a humanitarian gesture for reconciliation and cooperation," he said.
But the North Korean defense chief gave no direct answer and instead reiterated a call for the withdrawal of US troops on the peninsula, the minister said.
Kim's remarks signaled he will raise the issue again when the two countries' defense ministers hold talks in Pyongyang next month, Yonhap said.
Seoul says 485 of its citizens have been kidnapped since the end of the war, along with more than 500 prisoners of war who were not sent home.
The North denies holding South Koreans against their will even though 38 prisoners of war and at least five kidnapped fishermen have escaped and returned home.
Abductee family representatives expressed disappointment that the summit brought them no hope.
"What we asked for was only to let us know if our families there are alive," said Choi Sung-yong, head of a group representing kidnap victims.
RSS