Koreas hold ’serious’ talks on factory zone despite North’s threat to break off dialogue

Koreas hold ’serious’ talks amid North’s threats

SEOUL, South Korea — North and South Korea discussed development of their joint industrial complex Tuesday, despite Pyongyang’s recent threats it might break off all dialogue with its neighbor and could even stage an attack.

The two sides met for nearly four hours in the North’s border city of Kaesong to assess their joint tour of industrial parks in China and Vietnam undertaken in December, according to Seoul’s Unification Ministry.

Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung described the talks as taking place “in a serious and practical atmosphere.”

Seoul stressed the need for a quick and easy system for border crossings and customs clearance for South Koreans who travel to and from the industrial park, Chun said, in an apparent call on the North to improve the system.

The North said their recent surveys in China and Vietnam were positive, offering an opportunity to revitalize the complex, Chun said.

The two sides plan further discussions on Wednesday before the South Korean delegation returns home, said Chun.

This week’s talks came just days after Pyongyang threatened to launch a “sacred nationwide retaliatory battle” and vowed to cease all communication with the South following reports of a South Korean contingency plan to handle any unrest in the isolated North.

Kaesong, which combines South Korean capital and technology with cheap North Korean labor, is the most prominent symbol of inter-Korean cooperation. About 110 South Korean factories employ some 42,000 North Korean workers.

Meanwhile, South Korea’s top nuclear envoy Wi Sung-lac will leave for the U.S. Wednesday for talks with Stephen Bosworth, the special U.S. envoy to North Korea, and other U.S. officials on the North’s nuclear programs, according to the Foreign Ministry.

The trip comes as North Korea has recently made repeated demands that international sanctions be lifted before it will return to stalled negotiations aimed at ending its nuclear weapons programs.

Last year, Pyongyang quit the six-party talks — with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States — in anger over international condemnation of a prohibited long-range rocket launch.

The U.N. Security Council slapped tough new sanctions on the North in June, strengthening an arms embargo and authorizing ship searches on the high seas, following the missile launch and an underground nuclear test.