UPDATE - Koreas get closer in high-level talks

Senior South and North Korean officials resume dialogue that was cancelled earlier this month

UPDATES THROUGHOUT

By Alex Jensen

SEOUL (AA) - The Koreas agreed to a series of cooperation plans Friday, after getting around to holding high-level talks that the North abruptly called off last month.

Minister-level representatives from Seoul and Pyongyang met at the Panmunjom border village.

The two delegations were led respectively by the South's Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon and his North Korean counterpart Ri Son-gwon.

"South and North Korea agreed to take substantive steps to advance inter-Korean relations in a proactive and significant manner and to usher in a new era for reconciliation, peace and prosperity," they said in a joint statement carried by local news agency Yonhap.

Among Friday's key outcomes, they agreed to arrange senior military talks on June 14 in an effort to ease tensions that threatened to spark a conflict on the peninsula as recently as last year.

Other dialogue initiatives saw the sides plan talks on June 18 to discuss joint participation at the Asian Games, as well as a Red Cross meeting on June 22 to pave the way for reunions of families separated by the border since the Korean War cease-fire in 1953.

Moreover, they decided to soon open a liaison office in Kaesong, a city on the North's side of the border where an inter-Korean industrial complex was shut down amid high tensions in 2016.

The two sides will continue to discuss how to celebrate the June 15 anniversary of their first ever inter-Korean summit in 2000, along with their mutual ambition to reconnect railways and roads across the border.

Although the Koreas are for now hampered by sanctions against the North with regard to economic cooperation, that could change if Pyongyang denuclearizes as it has promised.

Ri emphasized the importance of mutual "trust and respect" while meeting Cho, Yonhap reported.

"I believe that there is no problem that we cannot solve together if we deal with it based on trust, respect and understanding of the other side, which is the basic mindset that South and North Korea both agree to," Cho said.

The pair were due to meet on May 16 before the North pulled out due to South Korean-American military drills.

Ties warmed up again, however, thanks to an unheralded second summit between the Korean leaders last weekend.

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