Stalemate over negotiators ends Koreas' talks

SEOUL, South Korea -- The Koreas' first high-level talks in years have been scrapped because of a stalemate over who will lead each delegation, South Korea said Tuesday, a day before they were to begin. The cancellation is a blow to tentative hopes that the rivals were about to improve ties following years of rising hostility.

North Korea said it wasn't sending its officials to Seoul for the two-day meeting that was to begin Wednesday because the South changed the head of its delegation, Kim Hyung-suk, a spokesman for Seoul's Unification Ministry, told reporters in a briefing. The ministry is in charge of North Korea matters.

There had been hope that the talks on reviving two high-profile economic cooperation projects would allow the countries to move past a relationship marred by recent North Korean threats of nuclear war and South Korean vows of counterstrikes. But the collapse over what's essentially a protocol matter is testament to the difficulty the countries have in finding common ground.

South Korea had originally wanted a minister-level meeting between the top officials responsible for inter-Korean affairs, but Pyongyang wouldn't commit to that. The last minister-level meeting between the Koreas occurred in 2007.

When Seoul told Pyongyang on Tuesday that it was sending a lower-level official than it had initially proposed in preparatory talks, North Korea said it would consider that a "provocation," Kim said.

-- AP