South Korea yesterday weighed its response to North Korea’s surprise proposal to hold the first official talks between the sides since Seoul’s new conservative government took office in February.
The North’s offer of military talks appeared to have caught the South off guard, coming as the frayed ties between the two sides showed no sign of improving. Seoul disclosed the proposal on Friday, a day after it arrived, a possible indication that it was scrambling to study the North’s intentions.
“We’re still having an internal review,” a Defense Ministry official said yesterday. “It’s unlikely to reach a conclusion until early next week.”
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity citing department policy, declined to give details.
Local media reported that the South was likely to agree to the talks, but was considering proposing a new date for the meeting, possibly Thursday or Friday, instead of on Tuesday, as proposed by the North.
It was Pyongyang’s first official offer for talks since South Korean President Lee Myung-bak’s administration took office in February with a pledge to get tougher on the North. The North responded by suspending all government-level talks with the South.
It also came amid heightened tensions over North Korea’s decision to abandon a pact to disarm for aid and to begin reassembling its nuclear reprocessing plant in Yongbyon. Earlier this week, the North ordered UN nuclear monitors to leave the country and said it would reinsert nuclear material into a plutonium-producing facility within a week, sparking alarm among its neighbors.
One analyst doubted the military talks, if realized, would result in a positive outcome.
“The North is more likely to use the talks as a vehicle for strong complaint,” said Kim Yong-hyun, a North Korea expert at Seoul’s Dongguk University.
The North could raise, among other things, the issue of annual military exercises between the South and the US, which Pyongyang have long condemned as rehearsals for invasion, Kim said.
“They could say, for instance, ‘We’re prepared for anything’ or ‘We will use a strong military means in case of the South’s provocation,”’ Kim said. “The question is how high the level of the North’s rhetoric will be.”
On Friday, South Korea’s foreign minister warned the North’s moves toward restarting its nuclear plant could erase years of progress.
“We are faced with a difficult situation where this [negotiation] is not moving forward and may go back to square one,” Yu Myung-hwan said.
The North stopped disabling the Yongbyon nuclear processing plant last month to protest Washington’s refusal to remove it from a list of countries that sponsor terrorism.
North Korea had agreed last year to begin disabling its nuclear system in exchange for energy aid and other concessions. But a North Korean diplomat confirmed 10 days ago that the regime stopped that process and was working toward restarting the plant.
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