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North and South Korea on Wednesday agreed to hold a fresh round of ministerial talks in Seoul in June, but negotiators failed to reach consensus on including the North Korean nuclear dispute in a communiqué concluding the present round of vice-ministerial talks in Kaesong and went into a two-day recess.
South Korean chief negotiator and Vice Unification Minister Rhee Bong-jo said the South Korean delegation made it clear that inter-Korean reconciliation and cooperation were impossible without a denuclearized Korean Peninsula, but Pyongyang refused to mention the issue in a joint statement.
Rhee said Seoul would deliver 200,000 tons of fertilizer aid at the North¡¯s request by both land and sea in mid-June.
Seoul and Pyongyang agreed that a South Korean delegation will attend anniversary celebrations for the June 15 Joint Declaration that led to a limited thaw between the neighbors, but failed to make headway on a new round of North-South family reunions and a ceremony to mark the reopening of a road between the two Koreas.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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