As we can see from the picture below, a S. Korean delegate extended his hand to shake his hand, but a N. Korean delegate did not even bother to accept it.
Posted on 05/19/2005 5:58:12 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Koreas Can't Break Nuclear Impasse
By PAUL ALEXANDER, Associated Press Writer
13 minutes ago
SEOUL, South Korea - The two Koreas concluded their first face-to-face talks in 10 months Thursday without making any progress on the impasse over the North's nuclear program, although they did agree to hold Cabinet-level talks next month.
The agreement came hours after word emerged of a secret meeting last week between U.S. and North Korean officials. The focus of both efforts was to get Pyongyang to rejoin six-nation talks on getting it to abandon its nuclear program, but the reclusive communist country -- which regularly uses brinksmanship to wring aid from the West -- clearly resisted any public commitment.
The U.S. Embassy in Tokyo said American officials met with North Korean officials in New York last week.
"This channel is used to convey messages about U.S. policy, not to negotiate," an embassy official said on condition of anonymity.
The meeting was first reported in The Boston Globe on Thursday.
A statement issued Thursday at the conclusion of the two-day meeting between the Koreas said both nations agreed to work for peace on the Korean Peninsula. It said a follow-up Cabinet-level meeting would be held June 21-24 in Seoul, and South Korea would begin providing 200,000 tons of fertilizer to the North starting May 21.
The Cabinet-level meeting was a minor victory for South Korea, which had proposed it, and the nuclear issue undoubtedly will be on the agenda then.
Seoul also will send a delegation to Pyongyang in June for the fifth anniversary of a historic summit between the two rivals. South Korean media said Unification Minister Chung Dong-young was expected to lead the delegation, and there was a possibility he would meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.
"For this event to take place in an atmosphere of reconciliation and cooperation, both sides agreed to actively cooperate and ... hold working-level talks," the statement said.
Seoul has provided fertilizer to the impoverished North in recent years to help alleviate widespread famine. It said the shipments would start almost immediately -- out of "humanitarian and brotherly love position" -- as Pyongyang had requested, in time for the spring planting season. The North earlier this year asked for 500,000 tons.
Talks between the two Koreas broke off in July after mass defections to South Korea that the North labeled kidnappings.
South Korea has found itself walking a tightrope during the talks in the North border town of Kaesong, trying to appease domestic pressure for some improvement in relations while international allies -- including Washington -- pressed for action on the nuclear issue.
The Bush administration earlier this month offered a couple of carrots to the North -- direct talks and recognition of its sovereignty -- in a bid to derail its nuclear weapons program.
The communist state declared Feb. 10 that it has nuclear weapons and would indefinitely boycott the six-nation disarmament talks ? involving the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia ? until the United States dropped its "hostile" policy toward it.
Washington has said repeatedly it has no intention of invading the North.
The North's nuclear claim has not been verified, but U.S. intelligence and other estimates say North Korea has as many as six atomic weapons.
The Boston Globe reported that Friday's meeting with the North was attended by Joseph DiTrani, the U.S. special envoy to the six-nation nuclear talks, and Jim Foster, the head of the State Department's Office of Korean Affairs.
Japan's Asahi newspaper reported that senior U.S. State Department officials went to North Korea's U.N. office with assurances that Washington recognizes North Korea as a sovereign nation under the leadership of Kim, and the Bush administration does not intend to attack it.
Kyodo News agency, citing anonymous sources, reported that North Korea responded that it would have a response to the discussions in two weeks.
As we can see from the picture below, a S. Korean delegate extended his hand to shake his hand, but a N. Korean delegate did not even bother to accept it.
Ping!
If we even read just a little about recent history, i.e. leading up to WWI and WWII, appeasement of dictators and tyranny, etc, we know what kinds of things could next happen.
That the problem they never learn from their history AIT
That reason
S. Korea starts delivering of fertilizer to North
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/asiapacific/detail.asp?GRP=C&id=62765
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