DPRK And Republic Of Korea Resume Talks On Exchange Of Relatives

Talks between the North and South of Korea recommenced in the Diamond Mountains Kumgangsan in the DPRK on Friday, for the first time after the September 11th terrorist acts in the USA. The emergency security measures taken in South Korea after these events roused alarm in Pyongyang, and the dialogue was interrupted. Head of the North-Korean delegation Kim Ryong Sohn stated at the current meeting that Seoul's emergency security measures are directed exclusively against the North, and this clouds the atmosphere of the talks. Kim Ryong Sohn called on Seoul to make efforts to improve it. To organise a fourth round of exchanges between relatives disunited as a result of the national split is the immediate purpose of the current intergovernmental negotiations. Such an exchange of visits took place for the first time in 1984. For its part, the South-Korean delegation, headed by Minister of Unification Hong Sung Yong, proposed, alongside exchanges, discussing the whole complex of problems of inter-Korean relations. Their list includes a possibility to resume the talks between the South and the North on confidence measures in the military sphere, continuation of the work to restore railway and automobile communication between the South and the North, and construction of a South-Korean technology park in the DPRK.