Seoul prepping for high-level talks with Pyongyang

Seoul, May 28: South Korea is making preparations for high-level talks with North Korea slated for later this week to discuss follow-up measures to the historic summit between their leaders last month, the Unification Ministry said on Monday. The move comes after South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un met on Saturday and agreed to hold high-level inter-Korean talks this Friday as part of efforts to carry out the Panmunjom Declaration they adopted after the April 27 summit, reports Yonhap News Agency. “We are making follow-up working-level preparations,” ministry spokesman Baik Tae-hyun said.

Taking issue with military drills underway, North Korea unilaterally cancelled a meeting with the South slated for May 16 that was intended to discuss concrete steps to implement the agreements reached during the summit last month. The cancellation came hours after the two sides exchanged lists of their delegations to the meeting scheduled to take place at the truce village of Panmunjom. If the meeting resumes, officials of the two Koreas are expected to discuss detailed steps that they will have to take to implement the agreement reached between their leaders last month. As agreed upon last month, a reunion of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War and cooperation in diverse areas including railroad, forestry and possibly cooperation to prepare joint events to mark their first-ever summit held on June 15, 2000, could be part of their discussion. (IANS)