S. Korea Rules Out Rapid Progress with North
South Korea's foreign minister Monday ruled out any quick and rapid progress in relations with North Korea despite unexpected talks last week between their nuclear envoys.
Kim Sung-Hwan said the talks between South Korean envoy Wi Sung-Lac and his counterpart Ri Yong-Ho in Indonesia on the sidelines of an Asian security forum "opened the gate" for ties.
"We can't immediately expect rapid progress in inter-Korean relations just because of the Bali talks," Kim told a local radio talk show.
Ties with the North are at their lowest ebb in almost a decade following two border incidents last year.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also said Sunday the North's vice foreign minister and former nuclear negotiator, Kim Kye-Gwan, would visit New York this week for "exploratory talks" on possible resumption of stalled six-party negotiations about denuclearization.
Kim said the invitation would shape the path to reviving the six-party forum and also to easing cross-border tensions.
"I expect there could be progress in relations between South and North Korea if there is progress in denuclearization," he said.
But the minister stressed that the South remains firm in its demand for Pyongyang to take further steps over last year's border incidents.
On Monday, Seoul approved civilian flour shipments to North Korea for the first time since the communist state shelled a frontline island near the disputed Yellow Sea border last November, killing four South Koreans.
As relations worsened in 2008 Seoul halted an annual government shipment of 400,000 tonnes of rice to its impoverished neighbor, although it allowed some civilian groups to keep sending aid.
Soth Korea believes flour can easily be diverted to the North's military.
However, the unification ministry, which must authorize all cross-border contacts, said it had allowed two civic groups to send 400 tons of flour to North Korea this week.
Source: Agence France Presse
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