Please don't slam the door

Asia

Asia view

Talks between the Koreas

Please don't slam the door

by D.T. | SEOUL

THE cordiality seemed good while it lasted. Following the deadly Cheonan and Yeonpyeong island incidents of the past year, the fact that army officers from both North and South Korea were able to shake hands and sit down to discuss preliminary details to do with top-level military talks looked like a major improvement. But that was yesterday. Today the North’s delegation walked out of the meeting room at Panmunjom, the “truce village” in which an armistice was signed in 1953, bringing the Korean War to a halt (or at least a very long pause).

South Korea has been demanding an apology from the North for both of those 2010 attacks, or at the very least for a show of “sincerity”. It had been believed that the Pyongyang delegation, led by Colonel Ri Sun Gyun, would strike a relatively conciliatory tone. But then his actual decision to walk out of a meeting “charged with emotion” (in the words of one South Korean official) is more in line with classic North Korean tactics.

Earlier today, it had been announced by the South that they had agreed in principle to begin discussions on reunions for separated families. Now this decision has been reversed, in light of the developments at Panmunjom. The North tends to be more than happy to discuss reunions, but it is rather less keen to deal with such thorny issues as its recently revealed uranium-enrichment programme.

Though officials from South Korea’s unification ministry say the talks have “collapsed”, it will be a surprise if we do not see Colonel Ri back at the table soon. North Korea, eager as always for aid and recognition, leaps at any opportunity to increase the level of tension and keep its adversaries in Seoul guessing. But ultimately it wants to get back to talking, in the hope of extracting concessions later. China too is thought to be keen for the North to participate in intra-Korean discussions, as a foundation for a later return to six-party talks. At this point though, a dignified silence from the South would be a better move.