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North Korea–South Korea relations

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North Korea and South Korea are holding their first high-level talks since 2007.

The meeting – requested by Pyongyang – is taking place at the border village of Panmunjom.

No agenda has been set but the issue of family reunions planned for later this month is expected to be discussed.

Pyongyang has threatened to cancel the reunions because of the annual military exercises South Korea and the US are due to stage in February.

The morning session started at 10:00 local time and lasted for 90 minutes. Delegates then reconvened at South Korea’s side of Panmunjom in the afternoon, AFP news agency said.

South Korea’s Deputy National Security Adviser Kim Kyou-hyun is leading Seoul’s delegation at the Panmunjom talks.

North Korea and South Korea are holding their first high-level talks since 2007

North Korea and South Korea are holding their first high-level talks since 2007

Ahead of the meeting, Kim Kyou –hyun said: “This is an opportunity to open a new era of the Korean peninsula.

“I would like to attend the meeting with ‘open attitude and mind’ to study the opportunity.

“We will make an effort to proceed with the separated families reunion event as agreed.”

North Korea’s delegation has been headed by Won Tong-yon, a senior official specializing in inter-Korean ties, South Korean officials said.

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North Korea and South Korea are to hold rare high-level talks on Wednesday, Seoul has announced, ahead of family reunions planned for later this month.

The meeting will take place at the border village of Panmunjom, a South Korea’s Unification Ministry spokesman said.

No agenda had been set but the planned family reunions were expected to be discussed, he said.

The agreement followed a proposal from North Korea to hold talks.

North Korea and South Korea are to hold rare high-level talks ahead of family reunions

North Korea and South Korea are to hold rare high-level talks ahead of family reunions

There is hope in Seoul that it might kick-start a regular dialogue, our correspondent adds.

North Korea and South Korea are due to hold reunions of families divided by the partitioning of the Korean Peninsula at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, for five days from February 20.

The last such reunions took place in 2010. But these reunions coincide with the start of US-South Korea joint military drills – annual exercises which anger North Korea.

In a news conference in Geneva on Tuesday, North Korea’s ambassador to the UN, So Se Pyong, spoke of the need to terminate all hostile military actions which he described as the main obstacles to peace.

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