Yonhap
2/28/2007
North Korea has proposed to resume inter-Korean humanitarian projects on a full scale immediately as the two Koreas held the first ministerial meeting in seven months, South Korean officials said Wednesday.
North Korea also offered to hold a meeting to discuss ways of boosting economic ties as soon as possible during a plenary session of the meeting held in the North’s capital Pyongyang, according to the officials.
“We have yet to determine the scope of full-scale resumption of humanitarian projects. The details will emerge from working-level, high-level negotiations,” said Lee Kwan-se, spokesman for the South’s five-member negotiating team.
Lee stressed the two sides did not discuss the resumption of Seoul’s food and fertilizer aid to North Korea during the two-hour session but sounded a note of optimism over the upcoming negotiations. “We think that the North’s offer expresses its firm will to resume humanitarian projects.”
In a keynote speech, Kwon Ho-ung, the North’s top negotiator, proposed to resume humanitarian projects on a full scale immediately when the four-day ministerial talks end and resume a meeting for economic cooperation at the earliest possible time in Pyongyang.
Kwon did not specify about humanitarian projects in his keynote speech, but analysts said that the North hopes to link the resumption of emotional family reunion events with Seoul’s food and fertilizer aid to Pyongyang.
Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung, Seoul’s top negotiator, proposed to conduct test runs of reconnected cross-border railways in the first half of this year and launch operations by the end of 2007, according to pool reports.
As a precondition for the operation of cross-border railways, Lee said it is necessary to make headway in the inter-Korea economic project such as exchanging raw materials from the South for the North’s minerals.
Lee also expressed regrets over the North’s missile and nuclear weapons tests, which he said led to the earlier-than-scheduled end of the last ministerial meeting and a seven-month hiatus in inter-Korean dialogue.
In this vein, he urged the North to fulfill the promise to dismantle its nuclear weapons program in return for energy aid in a “quick and smooth” manner, saying all the parties concerned are equitably responsible for taking action to achieve denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula on the basis of the principle of “action for action.”
Lee said the construction of a family reunion center at the Mount Geumgang resort should resume immediately and proposed that face-to-face family reunions be held no later than April. The construction has been suspended since the North conducted missile tests in July.
He also proposed to hold the cabinet-level meeting every quarter of the year regardless of the political situation, adding that the two sides should have to make efforts to resolve the issue of South Korean prisoners of war (POWs) and abductees held in the North.
During the meeting, North Korea is widely expected to ask for the immediate resumption of the South’s rice and fertilizer aid, while the South hopes to use it as leverage to make the North take quick steps in complying with the six-party agreement.
In the afternoon, the South Korean delegation is to visit the Kim Won-kyun Pyongyang Music College. North Korea chose the school in the district of Munsu near the Taedong River, defying concern that it may attempt to stage a visit to a politically sensitive place.
On Tuesday, negotiators from both sides attended a gala dinner hosted by North Korean Prime Minister Pak Pong-ju, shortly after the South’s delegation arrived in North Korea.
The talks, the 20th since the leaders of the two Koreas held their first-ever summit in Pyongyang in June 2000, come as the world is paying keen attention to whether North Korea will honor its promise to take the first steps toward ending its nuclear weapons program in return for energy aid.
The ministerial talks, the highest-level channel of regular dialogue between the two Koreas, had been suspended amid tension over North Korea’s missile tests in July and its nuclear weapon test in October.
On Feb. 15, Seoul and Pyongyang agreed to resume ministerial dialogue after a seven-month hiatus, just two days after the North pledged to take action to end its nuclear weapons program in return for economic and diplomatic benefits from South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.
Shortly after the North conducted missile tests in July, the South suspended food and fertilizer aid. After the North’s nuclear weapon test in October, the possible resumption of aid was blocked.
In retaliation, the communist nation immediately suspended inter-Korean talks and reunions for families separated by the sealed border since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.
Seoul is expected to ship some of the fertilizer aid to Pyongyang shortly after the Cabinet-level talks so that it can be used for the planting of rice seedlings this spring. The rest will likely be offered according to how much progress the North makes in implementing the steps agreed upon during the six-nation talks on the North’s nuclear dismantlement, according to sources.
“Our aid to North Korea will be within the scope of the amount that can be understood by the public,” a government official said, asking to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the issue, suggesting the aid will not exceed 500,000 tons of rice and 350,000 tons of fertilizer this year, the amount given in previous years.
In April, the South offered more economic aid to the North in exchange for finding a resolution to the POW and abductee issue, but the North was reluctant to deal with the humanitarian issue.
Official Seoul government data shows that 485 South Koreans have been abducted to North Korea since the Korean War ended, and that 548 South Korean soldiers were taken prisoner by the North during the three-year conflict.
North Korea abruptly canceled test runs of cross-border railways in May under apparent pressure from the hard-line military. It also led to mothballing an economic accord under which South Korea was supposed to provide raw materails in exchange for the North’s minerals. North Korea’s subsequent missile and nuclear weapons tests further clouded hopes of implementing the accord.
The tracks, one line cutting across the western section of the border and the other crossing through the eastern side, have been completed and were set to undergo test runs. A set of parallel roads have been in use since 2005 for South Koreans traveling to the North. NKeconWatch: (Click here to download the North Korean Railway system onto Google Earth)
South Korea has repeatedly called on North Korea to provide a security guarantee for the operation of cross-border railways, but the North has yet to give an answer on the issue.
The reconnection of the severed train lines was one of the tangible inter-Korean rapprochement projects agreed upon following the historic summit between then South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in 2000.
In 2005, South Korea agreed to provide the North with US$80 million worth of raw materials to help it produce clothing, footwear and soap starting in 2006. In return, the North was to provide the South with minerals, such as zinc and magnesite, after the mines were developed with South Korean investments, guaranteed by the Pyongyang government.
On Feb. 13, North Korea agreed to shut down its nuclear facilities and eventually dismantle them in exchange for energy aid and other benefits. The U.S. also agreed to discuss normalizing relations with the communist nation.
In the deal, North Korea will receive initial aid equal to 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil for shutting down and sealing its main nuclear reactor and related facilities at Yongbyon, 80 kilometers north of Pyongyang, within 60 days. International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors will determine whether the North carries out the steps properly.
North Korea can eventually receive another 950,000 tons in aid if it disables the reactor irreversibly and declares that it has ended all nuclear programs. The cost of the aid will be equitably distributed among the five other countries.
N. Korea Wants More Aid
Korea Times
Lee Jin-woo
2/28/2007
North Korea on Wednesday urged South Korea to resume inter-Korean humanitarian aid immediately.
On the second day of the inter-Korean Cabinet talks, which resumed after a seven-month hiatus, Kwon Ho-ung, chief Cabinet councillor of the North, also proposed that the two Koreas hold a meeting to discuss economic cooperation in its capital at an early date. The two Koreas discussed the details of aid shipments, especially rice and fertilizer, during the economic cooperation meeting.
Seoul seemed somewhat reluctant to accept Pyongyang’s requests before the Stalinist state shows that it will keep its promise to take the first steps to shut down and seal its primary nuclear reactor and resume the reunion of separated families.
Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung said in a keynote speech that the North should fulfill its promise to dismantle its nuclear weapons program in return for energy aid, which was agreed upon in the six-party talks in Beijing on Feb. 13.
Lee also suggested that the construction of a family reunion center at Mount Kumgang in North Korea be resumed immediately and that family reunions resume no later than April.
Last July, Pyongyang notified Seoul that it would stop constructing the reunion center, which was scheduled to be completed this year. The North also suspended inter-Korean family reunions scheduled for Aug. 15 last year.
The North abstained from specifying whether its request for humanitarian aid meant the shipment of rice and fertilizer from Seoul to Pyongyang.
During the four-day talks here, Seoul is expected to offer the shipment of some 500,000 tons of rice and 350,000 tons of fertilizer to Pyongyang.
The North, however, wants the South to include an additional 500,000 tons of rice and 100,000 tons of fertilizer, shipments that were postponed after the North’s test-firing of seven missiles on July 5, sources said.
“We’re doing the best we can. It remains to be seen what kind of results we can produce until the two Koreas release a joint press release on Friday,’’ Lee was quoted as saying after the meeting.
Later in the day, the South Korean delegation visited the Kim Won-kyun Pyongyang Music College. North Korea chose the college near the Taedong River for the visit, defying predictions that it would attempt to arrange a visit to a politically sensitive venue such as national cemeteries where North Koreans who sacrificed themselves during or after the 1950-53 Korean War were buried.
The ministerial talks, the highest-level channel of regular dialogue between the two Koreas, were suspended amid tension over North Korea’s missile tests in July and its nuclear test in October.
On Feb. 13, North Korea agreed to shut down its nuclear facilities and eventually dismantle them in exchange for energy aid and other benefits. The United States also agreed to discuss normalizing relations with the communist nation.
North Korea is supposed to receive initial aid equal to 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil for shutting down and sealing its main nuclear reactor and related facilities at Yongbyon, 80 kilometers north of Pyongyang, within 60 days. International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors will determine whether the North carries out the steps properly.
North Korea can eventually receive the remaining 950,000 tons in aid if it disables the reactor irreversibly and declares that it has ended all nuclear programs.
