Prospects of a second round of high-level inter-Korean talks seem to have dimmed as Seoul’s date for the talks, Oct. 30, has come and gone.

Unable to agree on issues that touch on the very core of the two sides’ reason for being, high-level talks seem elusive at the moment. The North continued to demand that Seoul stop civic groups in the South from floating balloons containing anti-North Korean leaflets across the border, accusing the government here of standing by while the civic groups attack the dignity of its leader Kim Jong-un. For a regime whose legitimacy resides with Kim, slander against him could be considered provocative. Seoul maintains that the civic groups are exercising their freedom of expression when they dispatch those leaflets and that such freedom of expression cannot be infringed in a free democracy.

The two sides are running parallel with nary a meeting point in sight. Yet, the government has not given up hope. It believes that North Korea’s initial suggestion of high-level talks between end of October and early November is still valid.

When Pyongyang sent its three high-ranking officials to Incheon and offered the high-level talks early last month, it must have been driven by a need for a reconciliation. Domestically it suffers from worsening economic conditions while internationally it faces the possibility of having its leader Kim sought by the International Criminal Court to be held accountable for widespread crimes against civilians.

In the weeks following the North Korean delegations’ visit to Incheon, neither side gave up on the possibility of the high-level talks despite continued provocations from the North, including a naval gunfire exchange off the west coast and an exchange of gunfire near the border in Yeoncheon, Gyeonggi Province, as well as shootings along the military demarcation line within the DMZ.

North Korea apparently deemed reconciliation as being to its advantage when it offered the talks. It should realistically calculate what is best for the regime before it scuttles the talks it originally proposed.