North and South Korea hold second round of talks
14 February 2014, 08:46
North and South Korea held another session of their highest-ranking talks for years on Friday, the Unification Ministry in Seoul said. No further details were immediately available of the talks at the border village of Panmunjom other than that the morning session had ended.
North Korea proposed the talks to try to improve relations on the Korean peninsula where ties have been strained since Pyongyang carried out its third atomic test in February last year.
Talks at the same location ended without agreement on Wednesday.
The main stumbling block was a demand by North Korea that annual military manoeuvres by US and South Korean forces be postponed.
Pyongyang wants the exercises to be put off until after family reunions later this month bringing together relatives separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.
Seoul rejected the demand. North Korea sees the manoeuvres as provocative and says they are a rehearsal for an invasion, an accusation denied by the United States and South Korea.
The Koreas agreed last week to hold another round of reunions, scheduled to take place at the Mount Kumgang resort in North Korea.
The family gatherings are a sensitive and emotional issue for the two countries.
Contact across their border through letters, emails or phone calls is usually impossible.
The two Koreas have allowed temporary reunions of selected divided families on a handful of occasions since a 2000 summit.
Voice of Russia, dpa
Source: http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_02_14/ North-and-South-Korea- hold-second-round-of-talks-7542/
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