S. Korea changes stance on talks venue

S. Korea changes stance on talks venue

Paul Eckert, Reuters, Seoul

South Korea has reversed earlier opposition to North Korea's proposed venue for inter-Korean ministerial talks and has agreed to accept the North's Mount Kumgang resort as the site, an official in Seoul said on Tuesday.

The talks were originally scheduled to be held from Oct. 28 to 31 in the North Korean capital Pyongyang, but were postponed after North Korea abruptly insisted on a venue change for reasons that remain unclear to Seoul.

"That is a fact," a Unification Ministry official said when asked if it had changed its earlier insistence on meeting in Pyongyang as the two Koreas agreed in September.

"After consulting with other ministries, probably at a meeting of the National Security Council, we will make a proposal to the North some time this week," the official said of Seoul's bid to break a North-South deadlock.

Unification Minister Hong Soon-young would then send a message later this week to North Korea recommending talks at the remote mountain resort, the official said by telephone.

The Communist North derailed plans to hold a series of exchanges this month when it called off visits of families divided since the 1950-53 Korean War, saying South Korea's anti- terrorism security alert had made the visits unsafe.

Seoul, host to 37,000 U.S. troops, had rejected Pyongyang's reasoning as baseless and demanded North Korea adhere to the originally agreed venue.

The U.S. State Department said last month -- even before the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon -- that U.S. military installations in South Korea and Japan could be terrorism targets. That warning remains in force.

The South Korean government has come under criticism from the political opposition and conservative media for making unilateral concessions to North Korea. Government opponents say Pyongyang has failed to reciprocate Seoul's goodwill and food aid.

The conservative opposition Grand National Party (GNP) attacked the government as "shady" for talking tough before a by- election last week then caving in to the North this week.

GNP spokesman Kwon Chul-hyun urged Seoul to "rethink the ministerial meeting unless it can ensure the speedy resumption of family reunions and other postponed talks".

The two Koreas remain technically in a state of war since the Korean conflict ended in an armed truce that has yet to be replaced by a peace treaty.

Seoul's attempt to get Korean ties back on track comes as North Korea continued a barrage of personal attacks on U.S. President George W. Bush over remarks in which he called North Korean leader Kim Jong-il secretive and suspicious.

On Tuesday, the North's official Rodong Shinmun took a swipe at Bush and challenged the U.S. military presence in the South.

"It is our will and independent mode of counteraction to respond to the U.S. hard line with a super hard line," the official newspaper said.

While spurning a U.S. call to resume talks ruptured since March, Pyongyang said on Monday it sought to improve relations with Washington, Seoul's staunch ally since North Korea invaded the South in 1950 to ignite the Korean War.

"It is good, not bad, to improve the DPRK-U.S. relations," said a Rodong Shinmun commentary, using the acronym for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name.

In Beijing on Monday, European Union diplomats told reporters after an Oct. 27-30 visit to North Korea that Pyongyang officials showed strong interest in improving ties with Washington and Seoul.

"They repeated this several times that they are really keen to resume contacts with the South Koreans and with the United States," said Patrick van Haute, director of the Asia department of the Belgian Foreign Ministry.

In what could be a significant move, North Korea sent a three- member delegation to attend a three-day meeting of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP), which opened in Washington on Monday.