North Korea has skipped Kaesong liaison office meetings for eight weeks

Benjamin Katzeff Silberstein

Reports Yonhap:

North Korea skipped a weekly meeting of the co-chiefs of an inter-Korean liaison office for the eighth straight week on Friday, deepening concerns about slumping cross-border exchanges amid stalled denuclearization negotiations between the U.S. and the North.

“North Korea informed us in advance that the North’s office head could not attend this week’s meeting,” unification ministry spokesman Lee Sang-min told a regular press briefing. “The meeting will not be held (this week), but the two Koreas continue to discuss necessary matters in a normal manner.”

When the two Koreas launched the liaison office last September in the North’s border town of Kaesong, they promised to hold a meeting of its co-heads — Vice Unification Minister Chun Hae-sung on the South side and his North Korean counterpart Jon Jong-su — every week, mostly on Fridays, to discuss cross-border issues.

The weekly meeting has not been held since before the Hanoi summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump, which ended without a deal due to differences over how to match Pyongyang’s denuclearization steps with Washington’s sanctions relief. It was last held on Feb. 22.

Full article:
N. Korea skips meeting of liaison office chiefs for 8 straight weeks
Yonhap News
2019-04-19

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