Tagged: South Korea

Delicate preparations for talks between North and South Korea collapsed like a souffle Tuesday, after both sides objected over who was going to show up to do the talking.

For the first time in two years, delegations from North and South Korea sat down for talks aimed at ratcheting down escalating tensions on the peninsula.

The meeting took place at the symbolically significant border village of Panmunjom, where nearly 60 years ago the two sides signed an armistice ending the Korean War.

The two Koreas have agreed in principle to talks aimed at mending their almost nonexistent relations, but they are stalled on the question of where to meet.

South Korea has suggested that high-level talks take place in its capital, Seoul, but North Korea has countered that only lower-level negotiations should take place and they should be held in its border city of Kaesong.

The rival Koreas have not met face to face for such negotiations since February 2011.