Pyongyang spurns Seoul's overtures

Pyongyang spurns Seoul's overtures

SEOUL (Reuter): North Korea has shelved rice talks with the South, accusing a sailor on a South Korean rice ship of spying, Seoul's Vice-Unification Minister Song Young-dae said yesterday.

North Korea watchers in Seoul said Pyongyang was spurning a bid by South Korea to achieve a breakthrough in relations by providing emergency rice aid to the communist state.

Song told reporters the ship, which delivered 5,000 tons of rice, was being barred from returning home three days after it unloaded its cargo at the North Korean port of Chongjin.

"North Korea claims (sailor) Lee Yang-chon's photographing at Chongjin port has been found out, through his confession, to be a premeditated espionage activity and an act of provocation," Song said.

"The North also notified that under these circumstances, the third round of talks could not take place as planned."

The talks, the only existing official channel between the two rivals, were due to begin today in Beijing.

South Korea had hoped the talks would lead to steps ending the long-standing confrontation with the North along the four kilometer wide demilitarization zone dividing the peninsula, regarded as the last Cold War frontier.

"North Korea threw a cold blanket on Seoul's plan to forge new relations," said Kim Koo-seup, chief researcher on North Korea at Seoul's Korea Institute for Defense Analysis.

"The North does not want any major changes towards the South as they suspect Seoul seeks to absorb the North by increasing contacts and exchanges," he said.

Song said Seoul officials were puzzled by the North's accusation as personal belongings of the 9,400-ton Samsun Venus' crew, including cameras, should have been kept in a sealed box and they were told not to take pictures.

He demanded the return of the ship's 21 crew and said Seoul was proposing to the North a meeting of representatives to discuss the issue.

The South "is committed to the supply of rice to North Korea as already agreed but I make it clear delay in rice supply is unavoidable until this case is resolved", he said.

At the first round of talks in Beijing in June, Seoul agreed to supply 150,000 tons of free rice to the North to ease what Seoul says is a chronic food shortage and to improve ties. Half has been shipped to the North already.

Asked if the latest development would mean inter-Korean ties would turn for the worse, Song said: "It is a sudden, unexpected incident. It is not right to link this case to the broad picture of South-North relations."

But South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted a senior official as saying Seoul was considering scaling down a proposal aimed at improving ties with the North on Aug. 15, the 50th anniversary of Korea's independence from Japan.

"North Korea is laying cards on the table to use them for bargaining with the South. It does not want inter-Korean ties to develop as Seoul wants to see," said Yu Suk-ryul, fellow at the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security.