Koreas to hold 1st meeting in liaison office on Oct. 22

The two Koreas will hold their first meeting at the inter-Korean liaison office in Gaeseong, North Korea, Monday, after it opened on Sept. 14. / Korea Times file

By Park Ji-won

The first inter-Korean high-level meeting will be held at the newly opened liaison office in the North on Monday to discuss ways to tackle pest control for pine trees and the modernization of seedling farms in North Korea. It is the first time for the two Koreas to hold such a meeting there since its official opening on Sept. 14.

High-ranking officials of the two Koreas agreed last week to hold further meetings to discuss cooperation in many areas.

On Oct. 15, the two Koreas reached an agreement to hold talks about forests, welfare and medical care, sports and the Red Cross sometime between October and November on the sidelines of inter-Korean high-level talks. They agreed on starting a joint inspection for reconnecting railways and roads at the end of October.

During the talks about forests they agreed to hold on Monday, the two Koreas are expected to discuss forming a new tree nursery in the North and long-term plans for reforestation of the North. Little data is available on the exact condition of North Korea's forestry, but it is said the lack of trees is severe there due to excessive deforestation, increasing the risks of flooding, landslides and desertification.

According to the Ministry of Unification, the South Korean delegation will be led by Park Chong-ho, a senior official at the Korea Forest Service, and include Lim Sang-seop, chief of the Forest Industry & Policy Bureau, and Kim Hoon-ah, an official of the unification ministry.

The North delegation will be led by Kim Song-jun, vice chief of the Ministry of Land and Environment Protection, and include Choe Bong-hwan, vice bureau chief of the land ministry, and Son Ji-myong, an official of the Inter-Korean Economic Cooperation Committee.

Since the Panmunjeom Declaration signed between the two Koreas in April, high-ranking officials from both countries have held working-level talks on forestry cooperation in July and inspected the extent of diseases and pests on Mount Geumgang in the North in April.

Both sides have been seeking cooperation on reforestation as it is one of the fields that is not in violation of U.N. sanctions on North Korea.

In that context, the South Korean government pushed plans to give aid to the North in forestry by forming a taskforce to conduct forestry cooperation as one of the top priorities among projects with North Korea.

The talks about welfare and medical services will be held on Oct. 24.

Both the South and North had agreed on cooperation on welfare after the Oct. 4 declaration in 2007. However, the agreement has yet to materialize.

The two are also expected to hold working-level talks about sports exchanges to push for joint participation in the 2020 Summer Olympics and co-hosting the 2032 Summer Olympics, but they haven't finalized their schedules to decide on the details.

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