North Korea working with South to resolve nuclear stand-off

North Korea today agreed to work peacefully with South Korea to resolve the international stand-off over Pyongyang’s nuclear programme.

But after the two Koreas issued a joint statement pledging co-operation, the South Korean government acknowledged that the agreement fell short of commitments it sought from the North during the Cabinet-level talks.

“Although we have not been able to draw out a more progressive position on North Korea’s nuclear issue, we have sufficiently delivered our and the international community’s concern on the nuclear issue,” the South’s statement said.

“Due to the lack of time, we could not achieve sufficiently satisfying results,” said the chief South Korean delegate, unification minister Jeong Se-hyun.

Still, the five-page joint statement was a triumph for South Korea, which sought to air concerns over Pyongyang’s nuclear programme at the talks – the first in months between the two Koreas.

North Korea has said it would discuss the matter only with the US. South Korea’s chief presidential spokeswoman Park Sun-sook said today that it was “meaningful that South and North Korea sat closely together for discussions on how to resolve the North’s nuclear issue”.

In the joint declaration, the two sides said they had “sufficiently exchanged” positions on the nuclear issue and “agreed to actively cooperate to resolve this issue peacefully”.

Before heading home, the North Korean delegation issued a statement that hailed the agreement as “a positive development that brightens the future of South-North Korean relations and provides hope, confidence and optimism”.

The chief North Korean negotiator, Kim Ryong Song, said the agreement “set the foundation for the development of national issues”.

North and South Korea also agreed to hold another round of ministerial talks on April 7-10 in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, and economic talks on February 11-14 in Seoul.

Both sides pledged to work toward reconciliation on the Korean Peninsula, which has been divided since 1945. Reconciliation projects have included cross-border rail and road links, as well as reunions of long-separated family members.

The Seoul meeting wrapped up just a day after North Korean leader Kim Jong Il toured a military unit near the North’s border with South Korea to give his troops a pep talk.

According to the North’s state-run KCNA news agency, Kim was “greatly satisfied” to see that his troops formed “an impregnable fortress with burning hatred and resentment at the US imperialist aggressors, the sworn enemy of the Korean people”.

Tensions escalated in October when the US said North Korea admitted having a nuclear programme in violation of a 1994 agreement. The US and its allies suspended oil shipments to the North, and Pyongyang responded by expelling UN inspectors and preparing to restart a nuclear reactor.

North Korea is believed to have produced two nuclear weapons already and experts say its complex at Yongbyon could produce several more within months.

North Korea has since denied ever admitting to a secret nuclear weapons programme.