hankyoreh

spokesperson for the Ministry of Unification

By Kim Kyu-won, staff reporter

North and South Korea have agreed to hold a working-level meeting at the Unification Pavilion on the North Korean side of Panmunjeom Peace Village at 10 am on July 6. The objective of the meeting is to resolve the issue of the Kaesong Industrial Complex, where operations have been shut down for three months.

Now that Pyongyang has agreed to the July 4 proposal by the South Korean government for working-level talks, inter-Korean dialogue is set to resume after twenty-five days of deadlock. The talks are notable as they may be an opportunity to resume operations at the Kaesong Complex and to improve inter-Korean relations.

After North Korea indicated on July 3 that it would allow businessmen from Kaesong tenant companies to visit the complex, the South Korean government responded the following morning with a counter-proposal. It suggested holding working-level talks between North and South at Panmunjeom on July 6.

“We made a proposal to North Korea to hold working-level talks about Kaesong between government officials from both North and South at Panmunjeom on July 6,” said Kim Hyung-suk, spokesperson for the Ministry of Unification, at a press conference. “More specifically, we suggested these could take place at either the Unification Pavilion on the North side of Panmunjeom Peace Village or the House of Peace on the South side.”

The Ministry of Unification suggested discussing the issues of inspecting the facilities and equipment at Kaesong, getting finished products and raw and subsidiary materials, and gradually normalizing the complex at the working-level meeting.

Late in the evening, Pyongyang sent word via its liaison officers at Panmunjeom that it had agreed to hold working-level talks, but it requested that the location of the talks be changed to the Kaesong Complex General Support Center. It also requested that company representatives be allowed to visit Kaesong at the time of the working-level talks.

In response, the Ministry of Unification suggested yet another location for the talks: Dorasan Inter-Korean Transit Office instead of the Kaesong Complex. It also suggested that a visit to Kaesong by company representatives should be discussed at the working-level talks on July 6.

Around 8pm, both sides finally agreed to hold the talks at the Unification Pavilion on the North Korean side of Panmunjeom, as the Unification Ministry had initially proposed. They also decided to exchange the members of the delegations to the talks on July 5. Furthermore, North and South agreed that deliberations on the question of company representatives visiting Kaesong will take place during the July 6 talks.

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