The Republic of Korea (RoK) and the Democratic People 's Republic of Korea (DPRK) failed to narrow their differences on major issues, including ensuring security for RoK tourists, at their working-level talks on resuming cross-border tours on Feb. 8.
The RoK side reiterated its position that the two sides, before reopening tours, need to draw up measures to ensure the safety of its tourists and launch a thorough investigation into the fatal shooting of a RoK tourist in 2008, which resulted in the complete suspension of tours, according to China’s Xinhua news agency
Meanwhile, the DPRK said the issues Seoul has brought up were already resolved and called for an immediate resumption of the inter-Korean tours.
Park Wang-ja, a female tourist in her 50's, was shot dead in July 2008 by a DPRK sentinel after she wandered into a restricted area, but Seoul's request for an on-sight probe was rejected by Pyongyang to much outcry there.
Tours to the historic border town of Kaesong were also suspended in the same year, rapidly souring inter-Korean ties that were already deteriorating since RoK President Lee Myung-bak took office earlier that year with a hard-line approach to the DPRK.
After about 19 months of hiatus and in what many in Seoul saw as a peace gesture or an attempt to seek practical benefit, the DPRK in early January proposed holding talks on reopening tours.
Seoul has previously said the DPRK's acceptance of its demands would not automatically lead to the resumption of the tours./.
The RoK side reiterated its position that the two sides, before reopening tours, need to draw up measures to ensure the safety of its tourists and launch a thorough investigation into the fatal shooting of a RoK tourist in 2008, which resulted in the complete suspension of tours, according to China’s Xinhua news agency
Meanwhile, the DPRK said the issues Seoul has brought up were already resolved and called for an immediate resumption of the inter-Korean tours.
Park Wang-ja, a female tourist in her 50's, was shot dead in July 2008 by a DPRK sentinel after she wandered into a restricted area, but Seoul's request for an on-sight probe was rejected by Pyongyang to much outcry there.
Tours to the historic border town of Kaesong were also suspended in the same year, rapidly souring inter-Korean ties that were already deteriorating since RoK President Lee Myung-bak took office earlier that year with a hard-line approach to the DPRK.
After about 19 months of hiatus and in what many in Seoul saw as a peace gesture or an attempt to seek practical benefit, the DPRK in early January proposed holding talks on reopening tours.
Seoul has previously said the DPRK's acceptance of its demands would not automatically lead to the resumption of the tours./.
