South Korean officials depart for meeting in North over troubled factory complex
By APTuesday, April 21, 2009
South Korean officials depart for meeting in North
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean officials traveled Tuesday to North Korea for the first official dialogue between the two governments under South Korea’s conservative President Lee Myung-bak, amid tension over Pyongyang’s April 5 rocket launch.
Also adding strain to the meeting was North Korea’s recent warning that the South not join a U.S.-led program to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction. The North also has been holding a South Korean worker at a joint industrial complex for allegedly denouncing Pyongyang’s political system.
South Korea hopes to try to win the release of the detained worker during the talks.
Local media have speculated the North could use the meeting to further raise tensions by threatening to undermine the troubled industrial zone if Seoul announces its participation in the U.S-led, anti-WMD program. Pyongyang has long denounced the program as part of U.S. efforts to overthrow the North Korean government.
An Associated Press photographer saw buses carrying South Korean officials departing for the North from the border control area. Government officials in Seoul could not immediately confirm if the officials had crossed the border.
Pyongyang made a surprise offer to South Korea for talks last week, saying only that it wants to discuss the factory park in the North Korean border city of Kaesong where more than 100 South Korean companies run factories and employ North Korean workers.
Tuesday’s talks mark the first government-to-government dialogue between the sides since Seoul’s conservative, pro-American President Lee took office last year with a pledge to get tough with Pyongyang and its nuclear ambitions.
Their ties have since rapidly strained, with the North cutting off dialogue and suspending major reconciliation projects. Pyongyang has also restricted access to the factory park by tightening border controls, raising concerns among participating South Korean companies about the project’s viability.
Since Lee office took office, the countries have met only for military talks or on the sidelines of six-nation negotiations aimed at North Korea’s nuclear disarmament.
