South Korea to seek regular high-level talks with North
South Korea's Ministry of Unification pledged its efforts to hold regular talks with North Korea in a press briefing on Friday, with the aim of restoring inter-Korean relations and resuming its humanitarian aid to those living in vulnerable conditions in North Korea.
The two Koreas, which technically remain at war, held their first high-level meeting in over two years on Jan. 9 to discuss North Korea's plans to join the 2018 Olympic Winter Games, which will begin on Feb. 9 in the South Korean county of PyeongChang.
Since then, Pyongyang and Seoul have held several rounds of meetings to agree on the details of North Korea's participation in the sports event, and South Korea wishes to regularize the talks and extend the scope of its agenda to other areas, according to a spokesperson for the Unification Ministry.
"Seoul also will seek sectoral talks with Pyongyang. It will pursue an improvement in ties and the resolution of North Korea's nuclear issue in tandem," the spokesperson said, cited by local news agency Yonhap.
During their latest meeting on Wednesday, the two countries agreed to parade under the same flag at the opening ceremony of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, as well as to have a joint women's ice hockey team compete in the event, indicating a symbolic breakthrough in inter-Korean diplomatic relations.
However, both sides did not address the proposal made by South Korea to organize in mid-February a reunion of families separated by the 1950-1953 Korean War, which if allowed by North Korea, would take place at around the same time as the Pyeongchang Olympics.
Pyongyang, which has yet to accept this proposal, and has demanded in exchange that Seoul return to North Korea the 12 North Korean waitresses who defected to the South in 2016, which Pyongyang claimed were kidnapped by South Korean authorities.