N. Korea dragging its feet on industrial park talks

SEOUL, Jan. 18 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has yet to grant access to a team of South
Korean delegates scheduled to cross the border to attend an inter-Korean dialogue
on the development of a joint industrial park, a government official here said
Monday.

The sides are set to hold a meeting on Tuesday at the Kaesong industrial park,
north of the inter-Korean border, to discuss ways to improve their joint
management of the complex.
Chun Hae-sung, spokesman for South Korea's Unification Ministry, said his
government notified North Korea last week of the nine South Korean delegates'
plan to travel to Kaesong, but the North has yet to respond.
"We expect the North to notify us of its approval of access no later than
Monday," Chun said in a briefing.
Just days after the North agreed to the meeting to discuss the results of a joint
inspection of overseas industrial towns, the communist state threatened Friday to
go ahead with a "sacred" military campaign against the South over a contingency
plan that Seoul had reportedly prepared involving the potential collapse of the
North.
The South Korean government has denied devising such a contingency plan.
Chun said it was "natural" for access to be granted as late as only a day before
talks, adding his side was preparing for the trip as scheduled.
The talks would mark the first direct contact this year between the two
countries, whose relations deteriorated after South Korean President Lee
Myung-bak took office in early 2008 with a pledge to tie reconciliation to
progress in North Korean denuclearization.
In its New Year's message on Jan. 1, North Korea displayed a willingness to
restore the relations. On Jan. 14, North Korea offered a round of talks with the
South on ways to resume cross-border tours that had been suspended after the
shooting death of a South Korean tourist in June 2008. Seoul has yet to decide
whether it will accept the proposal.
(END)