Cancelled Ministerial Talks between North and South Korea

The 15th set of ministerial talks between the two Koreas, expected to be held in Seoul on August 3, was cancelled by the North in rejection of the 468 North Korean refugees’ recent move to the South from a country in Southeast Asia.

A spokesman of the Unification Department of South Korea, Kim Hong-jae, said in a public statement that day, “I’m sorry that the meeting is not being held at its scheduled date,” and urged North Korea to “let us hold talks soon as the government’s position is that it will execute the 6/15 joint declaration and inter-Korean items of understanding faithfully.”

While the South Korean government asked for a consultation for a meeting schedule through contact with a liaison department in Panmunjeom on July 26 and 29, the North only repeated the answer, “No orders from the ruling office.” The government sees the North’s rejection as a result of the recent mass defection of North Korean refugees to the South.

In regard to this, a spokesman of the North Korean Foreign Ministry claimed, “We have enough material to show that Vietnam took part in the inducement and abduction of North Koreans conducted by the U.S. and the South. Vietnam revealed that it can abandon its basic duty and morality between nations without hesitation for its own interests.”

Such a claim shows that the North regards the route taken by the recent mass defection of refugees to enter the South to be Vietnam. Also, it seems that North Korea mentioned the word, “interests,” because the South Korean government recently bought 100,000 tons of rice from Vietnam for food aid to North Korea.

The government did not announce the name of the country through which these defectors passed on their way to Korea in order to keep diplomatic confidence and cooperation.

Seung-Ryun Kim srkim@donga.com