| |
SEOUL : South Korea on Sunday accepted the North's offer to hold talks about a Seoul-funded joint industrial estate - the first face-to-face meeting between officials of the two countries in over a year.
Pyongyang, which cut all direct contact with the South's conservative government early last year, offered to hold talks "concerning the Kaesong industrial zone", Seoul's unification ministry said on Saturday.
It was not clear precisely what the North wanted to discuss about the industrial estate, which lies just over the border in the North.
A 10-strong South Korean delegation will leave for Kaesong on Tuesday for talks that day, ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-Joo told a briefing Sunday after officials met to discuss a response.
"The government accepts North Korea's offer and plans to hold an inter-Korean contact in Kaesong on April 21," Lee said.
"Our main interest concerns the safety of our citizens and the stable development of the Kaesong industrial complex."
The estate opened in 2005 as a symbol of reconciliation but has been hit by souring inter-Korean ties since President Lee Myung-Bak took office in Seoul in February 2008 promising a firmer line with Pyongyang.
In December, the North restricted border crossings and expelled hundreds of South Korean managers from the zone.
On March 30, a South Korean employee at Kaesong was arrested for allegedly criticising the North's communist regime and trying to persuade a local woman worker to defect.
He remains in custody and Seoul says access to him has been denied.
Some analysts say the North is likely to warn on Tuesday that the Kaesong industrial estate and all other inter-Korean ties will be cut indefinitely if Seoul joins a US-led initiative to curb trade in weapons of mass destruction.
Pyongyang repeatedly warned on Saturday that Seoul's participation in the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) would be regarded as a declaration of war.
North Korea has been a leading exporter of missiles in recent years.
Seoul has delayed an announcement of its decision to join the PSI, which was initially planned shortly after a rocket launch by the North on April 5. - AFP/ms
|
