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Thursday May 31, 4:48 PMN. Korea irked by S. Korea's decision to suspend rice aid shipment(Kyodo) _ North Korea has taken issue with South Korea's recent decision to suspend a scheduled rice aid shipment to the North, a South Korean official said Thursday.North Korea's Chief Cabinet Councilor Kwon Ho Ung told South Korea's Unification Minister Lee Jae Joung that the South has failed to implement an agreement reached between the two sides, Ko Gyoung Bin told reporters. Kwon and Lee are their governments' chief delegates to the 21st ministerial talks between the two Koreas that began Wednesday and are scheduled to end Friday. In response, Lee cited "various difficult circumstances" that prompted the South's decision on rice aid to the North, adding the South's position is to "faithfully carry out the agreement" on rice aid. With the North's taking issue with the delay, the two sides are likely to face difficulties in working out major agreements on reconciliation and other economic projects. The South's decision last week to delay the shipment was apparently due to North Korea's failure to implement the Feb. 13 agreement on the North's denuclearization. The North Korean position was conveyed to the South Korean side at chief delegates' meeting held Thursday afternoon. In a Feb. 12 agreement reached at the six-party talks among the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia, Pyongyang agreed to shut down and seal its key Yongbyon nuclear facility and invite International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors back into the country by April 14, in return for energy aid. But Pyongyang failed to meet the deadline, citing a banking issue with the United States over roughly $25 million in North Korea-linked funds that were frozen at a Macao bank that Washington said helped Pyongyang launder money and circulate counterfeit currency. While the Macao authorities have unblocked the funds, technical and other legal issues have prevented the transfer of the money from the bank. The inter-Korean ministerial talks have been the highest channel of dialogue to explore ways aimed at promoting national reconciliation and bilateral economic cooperation since the landmark inter-Korean summit held in June, 2000, between North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and then South Korean President Kim Dae Jung in Pyongyang. |
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