North Korea Refuses to Make a Commitment on Talks

SEOUL —  A high-level North Korean delegation headed home today after rejecting South Korean pleas for a commitment to return to international nuclear disarmament talks.

Despite the nuclear impasse, the two Koreas agreed during two days of high-level reconciliation talks to restart reunions of families separated by their border, and to hold meetings in coming months to boost economic and military cooperation.

But at the same time, the communist North dealt another setback to disarmament efforts, lashing out at President Bush for meeting with a prominent defector.

Pyongyang has stayed away from the six-party disarmament talks for a year. Hopes that the negotiations might be revived were raised last week when leader Kim Jong Il said his country could return to the table as early as next month, if it got proper respect from the United States.

But the North gave no “definite answer” on the issue at the talks that ended Thursday, said Kim Chun Sik, a spokesman for the South’s delegation.

“The South and the North have agreed to take real measures for peaceful resolution of the nuclear issue through dialogue,” said Unification Minister Chung Dong Young, who headed the South Korean delegation, reading from a joint statement.

That statement didn’t go beyond both sides’ previous pledges. Washington has said Pyongyang needs to set a firm date to return to the negotiations and talk substantively about giving up its program.

Three rounds have failed to yield notable progress. Washington has spurned the North’s requests for direct talks.

“I believe the day will soon come when we make progress on the six-party talks and resolve the nuclear issue peacefully,” South Korean Prime Minister Lee Hae Chan said Thursday at a dinner with the delegations.

The North’s top official at the talks said the two Koreas still faced challenges requiring joint efforts. “There are interruptions by outsiders who don’t want our people to join forces, and there remain challenges from forces who fear getting rid of the curtain of ideological confrontation,” said chief Cabinet counselor Kwon Ho Ung.

Despite the talk of reconciliation in Seoul between the Koreas, the North launched another tirade Thursday against the United States, criticizing Bush for meeting with Kan Chol Hwan, a prominent North Korean defector at the White House last week.

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said that “the human rights piffle again let loose by the U.S. high echelon suggests that Washington is not firm in its stand to recognize [North Korea] as its dialogue partner and respect it.”