DPRK to reconsider high-level talks with ROK

SEOUL - The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said Sunday that it will reconsider the agreement with the Republic of Korea to hold high-level talks as Seoul did nothing to prevent civic groups from flying anti-DPRK leaflets across the border, Seoul's Unification Ministry said Monday.

The DPRK's National Defense Commission sent a notice Sunday via the western military hotline to the ROK's presidential national security office, saying the ROK's authorities let conservative activists float anti-DPRK leaflets in the nighttime despite the aborted plan to send such leaflets in the daytime, according to the ministry.

A group of the ROK's conservative activists sought to fly balloons carrying anti-DPRK leaflets in Imjingak near the inter-Korean land border on Saturday morning, but it failed as progressive civic groups and residents there were strongly opposed to it.

The activists instead floated a large balloon containing the leaflets at Saturday night from the nearby Gimpo area.

The DPRK's top military body said it will think about whether high-level contacts between the two Koreas can be held in such a mood that the ROK does not welcome the DPRK's call for improved inter-Korean relations.

Pyongyang has denounced Seoul of conniving at the "catastrophic" anti-DPRK leaflets drop, describing such move as"declaration of war". On Oct 10, the DPRK fired machine gun shots at balloons carrying such leaflets floated by a South Korean civic group. The ROK's soldiers shot back after some of the bullets flew across the border.

In response, the ROK's national security office sent a notice to the DPRK, saying there is no change in its position that the government has no legal grounds to control private groups' such activity.

The ROK called for the DPRK through the notice to make clear its position on Seoul's Oct 15 offer to hold the senior- level dialogue on Oct 30 at Tongilgak, an administrative building on the DPRK side of the truce village of Panmunjom.

On Oct 4, the DPRK agreed to the second round of high-level inter-Korean talks during the sudden visit of three high-ranking DPRK officials to the ROK for the closing ceremony of the Incheon Asian Games. The DPRK said the ROK can pick a date for the talks between late October and early November.