North Korea to Reopen Border Crossing with South, Offers Early Talks

A day after the two Koreas agreed on opening dialogue in June 12, the North said on Friday it would restore a hotline with South and proposed holding weekend talks in a border town.

The two Koreas unexpectedly reached a snap agreement Thursday on opening a dialogue, with South Korea responding to a North initiative by offering a ministerial-level meeting in Seoul on June 12.

A spokesman for Pyongyang’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea (CPRK) welcomed the South’s quick response, and suggested initial lower-level talks Sunday in the Kaesong joint industrial zone.

“Working-level contact… is necessary prior to ministerial-level talks proposed by the South, in light of the prevailing situation in which bilateral relations have stalemated for years and mistrust has reached an extreme,” the CPRK spokesman said.
South Korea’s Unification Ministry said it was “studying” the offer.

The North shut down Kaesong, which lies just over its side of the border, in April as the recent crisis on the divided peninsula peaked. Reopening the joint complex will top the agenda for the proposed dialogue.

The hotline, suspended by the North in March as military tensions flared, will be restored from 2:00 pm (0500 GMT) Friday, the CPRK spokesman added.
The last working level talks between the two countries were held in February 2011, and there have been no inter-Korean talks at the ministerial level since 2007.

The agreement on resuming a dialogue came just ahead of Friday’s summit between US President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, at which the North’s nuclear program will be high on the agenda.