The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Jan. 18 renewed its demand for negotiations on a peace treaty and the lifting of sanctions before it returns to stalled talks on its denuclearisation.
This was the second time within a week the DPRK has issued a similar call. The DPRK has boycotted the six-party talks since April 2009, just a month before the country conducted the second nuclear test.
The DPRK’s Foreign Ministry said it “is not opposed to the six-party talks,” but the negotiations will come to a collapse in the absence of trust-building measures, including the discussions on concluding a peace treaty for the Korean peninsula.
Also on Jan. 18, the Republic of Korea (RoK)’s Unification Ministry said the two nations are scheduled to hold talks on economic cooperation on Jan. 19.
The RoK will send delegates to the talks at the joint industrial complex of Kaesong to discuss ways of resuming its normal operations, the ministry’s spokesman Chun Hae-sung said.
Seoul expects that the planned meeting will become an annual forum to seek measures to boost the development of the industrial complex, where 40,000 DPRK workers are employed by 110 RoK companies.
The latest report issued by the RoK government shows that inter-Korean trade dropped 8.5 percent in 2009 to 1.66 billion USD due to the global economic crisis.
Of the sum, almost 733 million USD came from the RoK’s exports, while the remainder was of its imports./.
This was the second time within a week the DPRK has issued a similar call. The DPRK has boycotted the six-party talks since April 2009, just a month before the country conducted the second nuclear test.
The DPRK’s Foreign Ministry said it “is not opposed to the six-party talks,” but the negotiations will come to a collapse in the absence of trust-building measures, including the discussions on concluding a peace treaty for the Korean peninsula.
Also on Jan. 18, the Republic of Korea (RoK)’s Unification Ministry said the two nations are scheduled to hold talks on economic cooperation on Jan. 19.
The RoK will send delegates to the talks at the joint industrial complex of Kaesong to discuss ways of resuming its normal operations, the ministry’s spokesman Chun Hae-sung said.
Seoul expects that the planned meeting will become an annual forum to seek measures to boost the development of the industrial complex, where 40,000 DPRK workers are employed by 110 RoK companies.
The latest report issued by the RoK government shows that inter-Korean trade dropped 8.5 percent in 2009 to 1.66 billion USD due to the global economic crisis.
Of the sum, almost 733 million USD came from the RoK’s exports, while the remainder was of its imports./.
