Inter-Korean talks no longer being called “minister-level”

Posted on : 2013-06-11 15:41 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
Change in the language used shows departure from pattern of ministerial talks under previous administrations
 Gyeonggi Province
Gyeonggi Province

By Gil Yun-hyung, staff reporter

Questions are being raised over the meaning of the name change in the inter-Korean talks scheduled for June 12 in Seoul.

The Ministry of Unification said on June 10 that the two sides had agreed to “talks between government authorities.” The term was put in place of “ministerial talks,” which had been used during working-level meetings that started on June 9 and went into the next day between South and North in the South Korean area of Panmunjom Peace Village .

Chun Hae-sung, head of the Unification Ministry‘s policy office and the senior representative at those talks, told reporters at a June 10 briefing that the issue “had been raised by the North, and we agreed based on the idea that it was appropriate for formulating a new kind of inter-Korean relations and inter-Korean dialogue in a new era.”

According to the ministry, the North Korean side balked when the South Korean representatives suggesting using the term “senior authorities’ talks,” hinting that Kim Yang-gon, Secretary of the Central Committee and Director of the United Front Department of the (North) Korean Workers’ Party, should be the country’s senior representative at the talks. Instead, the North Korean representatives suggested the term “talks between authorities,” omitting the “senior” reference.

But the change is also symbolic of a deeper shift in inter-Korean relations over the years. The 21 rounds of ministerial talks that took place under the Kim Dae-jung (1998-2003) and Roh Moo-hyun (2003-2008) administrations were aimed, as a joint press release from the first one stated, at “emphasizing the great meaning of the June 15 Inter-Korean Joint Declaration [of 2000] and faithfully implementing its terms.” Now, experts are predicting future talks between authorities will focus on the “Korean Peninsula trust-building process,” the new North Korea policy of the Park Geun-hye administration, without being tied to that declaration.

Indeed, Chun declared that the “talks between authorities” would be “separate talks from the previous ministerial ones.”

 

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