North and South Korea announced yesterday they were planning to hold talks for the first time since February 2011, signalling attempts to repair ties that have been ruptured for months.
For months earlier this year, North Korea unleashed an almost daily stream of threats against the South and its ally, the United States, vowing to attack them with nuclear weapons. Tension on the Korean peninsula was at the highest in decades, but has waned since joint US-South Korean military drills ended in late April.
North Korea’s state- owned KCNA news agency issued a statement yesterday proposing talks with the South on normalising commercial projects, including the joint industrial zone that was closed at the height of tensions in early April.
Communication channels
It also said Pyongyang would restore severed communications channels if the South accepted the offer of talks, indicating it was prepared to roll back a series of hostile steps it took as relations deteriorated.
South Korea welcomed the offer, proposing the talks be held on June 12th between ministers to discuss a range of issues including the commercial projects and families split during the 1950-53 Korean War.
“We hope that the talks take place between the authorities of the South and the North as we proposed and are accepted by the North and become an occasion for relations to develop based on mutual trust,” unification minister Ryoo Kihl-jae said.
– (Reuters)