SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North and South Korea ended talks Tuesday in the communist country over a troubled industrial project shortly after they began as officials spent most of the day in a procedural standoff.
The meeting came amid rising tensions on the Korean peninsula after international condemnation of North Korea's April 5 rocket launch and its decision to restart it nuclear program and withdraw from negotiations aimed at disarmament.
Unification Ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo said that the talks began late Tuesday night at the Kaesong Industrial Complex across the border in North Korea after hours of wrangling over how they should be conducted. The ended just 22 minutes later.
Lee had no details about the content of the discussions.
Tuesday's talks marked the first government-to-government dialogue between the sides since conservative South Korean President Lee Myung-bak took office in February last year with a pledge to get tough with Pyongyang and its nuclear ambitions.
The difficulty over getting the talks started underlines how soured relations are between the two countries.
No comments:
Post a Comment