Inter-Korean talks called off

A high-level inter-Korean meeting has been called off as the two Koreas failed to narrow differences over the level of their chief delegates. The two-day meeting, the first of its kind in six years, was originally scheduled to open in Seoul Wednesday.

North Korea unilaterally called off the talks after South Korea proposed Vice Unification Minister Kim Nam-shik as its chief negotiator, Seoul's Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Hyung-suk told reporters. The North demanded that the South send a ministerial-level official as its chief delegate.

South Korea had proposed appointing its unification minister, Ryoo Kihl-jae, to head its five-member delegation, asking North Korea to dispatch Kim Yang-gon, chief of the United Front Department at the ruling Workers’ Party, as Ryoo‘s counterpart.

However, Pyongyang proposed Kang Ji-yong, a director at the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, as its chief negotiator. Kang's post, according to Seoul officials, is a level or two lower than a North Korean cabinet member.

The high-level talks were to have discussed various issues, including the reopening of a joint industrial complex in the North Korean border city of Gaeseong, restart of tours by South Koreans to the Mt. Geumgang resort on the east coast and resumption of temporary reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.

Despite the cancellation, the South Korean government said it is still "open to talks" with North Korea.

Park Sae-jin swatchsjp@ajunews.com