No breakthrough at inter-Korean talks feared to hurt ties: experts

SEOUL, Dec. 12 (Yonhap) -- South and North Korea's failure to produce a breakthrough at their high-level talks is feared to bring their ties to a standstill, necessitating the two sides' exercise flexibility for further dialogue, experts said. The two Koreas failed to reach any agreement during the two-day vice-ministerial talks held at a joint industrial park in the North's border city of Kaesong. No schedule for another round of talks has been fixed. A deal breaker for the talks was a sharp division over dealing with the resumption of a suspended joint tour program at Mount Kumgang on the North's east coast, analysts said. Seoul has placed top priority on resolving the issue of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War while the North has repeatedly pressed the South to reopen the tour program, which has been halted since 2008 due to the shooting death of a South Korean tourist. "There was no reason for North Korea to solve the separated family issue if Seoul would not accept its request over the tour project," said Chang Yong-seok, a researcher at the Seoul National University Institute for Peace and Unification Studies. Momentum for inter-Korean dialogue has gained ground this year as the two Koreas reached a deal on Aug. 25 to defuse military tension following a border land-mine explosion blamed on the North in early August. North Korea has claimed that the resumption of the tour program is a precondition for discussing ways to resolve the separated family issue. Seoul has said that the two issues should be separately discussed. Pyongyang has called on Seoul to reopen the tour program in an apparent bid to earn hard currency as it is under heavy U.N. sanctions over its nuclear tests and missile launches. But South Korea has said that North Korea should take measures to guarantee the safety of South Korean visitors at the mountain and ensure that similar incidents do not recur. "The North would want to achieve some feats on inter-Korean affairs ahead of the ruling party's congress for next year," said Kim Yong-hyun, a professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University. "For the North's part, if Seoul does not accept its request for the tour issue, North Korea's room for maneuver is limited." Analysts said that inter-Korean ties may be strained for the time being as the two sides could not set the date for future talks. But some said that all doors for further dialogue are not closed as the North still has the motivation to improve inter-Korean relations ahead of the May congress of the Workers' Party of Korea. "I don't think that momentum for dialogue has totally fizzled out. The two sides have earned a chance to further think about how to resolve their pressing issues," said Hong Hyun-ik, a senior researcher at Sejong Institute. sooyeon@yna.co.kr (END)