Updated on
Summary
North Korea reiterated Saturday a proposal for unconditional talks with South Korea to ease tensions on the divided peninsula.The latest offer comes days after South Korea dismissed earlier calls by the North for negotiations. Tensions between the two sides escalated after a North Korean artillery barrage on a South Korean-held island near their disputed maritime border killed four South Koreans in November. The attack which was first on a civilian area since the 1950-53 Korean War occurred in waters not far from where a North Korean torpedo allegedly brought down a South Korean warship eight months earlier. That attack killed 46 sailors; where as North Korea has denied the responsibility. North Korea also proposed holding separate talks later this month or in early February on other issues, including resuming a suspended joint tourism project and cooperation at an industrial complex in the border city of Kaesong. The North also suggested restarting suspended Red Cross talks on humanitarian issues. North Korea's sudden willingness to talk fits a well-established and for diplomats engaged in the often tortuous negotiations in the past, tiresome pattern. Pyongyang, the complaint goes, creates a crisis and, when panic and fear envelope Seoul, Washington and Tokyo, then offers the possibility of negotiations to win badly needed food, fuel and other aid. Six-nation talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear weapons programs have stumbled and were last held in December 2008.
