Update | Shoving match as Korean talks on Kaesong collapse
North Korea blasts ‘arrogant’ South over failed Kaesong talks
North Korea on Friday blasted South Korea’s “arrogant” attitude after talks on salvaging the jointly-run Kaesong industrial zone collapsed, sparking a shoving match between officials from both sides.
The North also accused the South of using “delaying tactics” by demanding that Pyongyang take responsibility for the closure of the estate and compensate for financial losses.
The South side persisted in its arrogant stand, pushing the talks to the point of stalemate
“The North side made every possible effort to prevent the talks from not making any results but the South side persisted in its arrogant stand, pushing the talks to the point of stalemate,” the North’s Korean Central News Agency said in a commentary.
“The South side can never escape its responsibility for all the aftermaths to be entailed by its move of having pushed the talks to a deadlock,” it said.
The failure of both sides to set a date for another meeting after a sixth round of discussions on Thursday on reviving Kaesong was compounded by a pushing match that broke out between North and South officials.
At the end of the talks, the North’s chief delegate Pak Chol-su told South Korean reporters that the North’s military may re-occupy the estate unless the two sides work out a solution.
North Korea had relocated its military facilities in order to make room for the zone, which opened in 2004.
