GAESEONG ― The two Koreas made some headway in their talks Monday to restart a joint industrial park in Gaeseong, Seoul officials said.

The delegates exchanged new draft agreements but continued to haggle over Seoul’s demands principally for a framework to prevent a unilateral suspension of the complex. A next meeting was set for Thursday.

“We made progress on some parts but we needed to more fine-tune our stances on others,” the South’s chief negotiator Kim Ki-woong told reporters after the fifth round of dialogue in the North’s border city.

Seoul reiterated the need for an institutional framework to ensure stable operation of the district, protect its people’s safety and assets, and court foreign firms for the park’s globalization.

Pyongyang remained steadfast in its demands for a return to normality with no prerequisites.

“The biggest difference was over how to prevent a relapse. Our position is that we need the North’s firm promise to safeguard against a future suspension,” Kim said.

“The North side displayed a positive stance toward developing the Gaeseong complex into an international one.”

Another key issue at stake is whether to set up a separate body to formulate “institutional assurances,” Kim added.

During a meeting of senior secretaries, President Park Geun-hye stressed the significance of such assurances as “beneficial” for both sides.

“This round of working-level talks puts emphasis on the park’s normalization, but you should keep in mind that it will make a critical basis for crafting principles and a framework for new inter-Korean relations,” Park said, expressing hopes for a “meaningful, sustainable agreement.”

“Many countries around the world including China and Vietnam have set good precedents and affirmed that securing an investment climate that meets international standards brings much greater benefits.”

The meeting came five days after the two Koreas failed to agree on reopening the district during a fourth round of negotiations in Gaeseong.

But with the negotiations dragging out, the atmosphere has grown frosty.

Kim, director-general of inter-Korean cooperation district support at the Unification Ministry, appeared nervous and stony-faced as he departed for Gaeseong early in the morning.

His counterpart Park Chol-su shook hands with the three delegates upon their arrival, offering a stiff look and a strong whiff of cigarettes but no greeting.

Park is vice director of the North’s General Bureau of the Special Zone Development Guidance.

As the talks kicked off, Park entered the room and sat down right away. But he stood up again and shook hands with Kim at his request. The two officials skipped the usual pre-meeting handshake last Monday.

“I hope that each side’s representatives will carry out today’s discussions in earnest, with the resolve to make this crisis a blessing in disguise and open the path for the complex to greatly develop on a firm footing in the future,” Kim said at the meeting’s onset.

By Shin Hyon-hee & Joint Press Corps
(heeshin@heraldcorp.com)