From rice to nukes, Koreas find little unity

North and South Korean officials meet in high-level talks this week.

from the May 30, 2007 edition

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Kaesong, Korea - A huge banner dominated by a smiling image of late North Korean leader Kim Il Sung hangs above the entrance of the newly built railroad station in the special economic zone here.

The station, though, is empty. No trains are visible on the single track to South Korea, two miles south, and no one expects service any time soon despite a blaze of publicity that accompanied the only test run of a train on May 17.

"The North Korean military did not want the railroad connection," says Kim Tae Woo of the Institute for Defense Analyses in Seoul. "They have another agenda."

The failure to inaugurate North-South rail service suggests the frustrations in persuading North Korea to fulfill its obligations on a wide range of issues, none so difficult as the agreement of Feb. 13, under which the North was to have shut down its five-megawatt nuclear reactor at Yongbyon, 60 miles north of Pyongyang.

North Korea, under terms of the deal signed by the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia, and the US, had 60 days to shut down the reactor and move to a more difficult phase, acknowledging all of its nuclear facilities and getting rid of them along with nuclear warheads made at Yongbyon. The North in turn would receive billions of dollars in aid, mostly to power and improve its electrical grid.

These steps – as well as other confidence-building measures – are on the table this week as South and North Korean officials meet in ministerial-level talks in Seoul. North Korea's state councilor, Kwon Ho Woong, talked Tuesday about "the green of spring" as a "good sign," but the talks may be rocky. At issue is whether North Korea will live up to any deal without demanding concessions that may just lead to more demands.

South Korean officials are targeting issues ranging from opening the railroad to freeing South Koreans held in the North, including Korean War prisoners whom the North refuses to acknowledge, to living up to the nuclear agreement.

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