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S. Korea seeks help to probe killing

SINGAPORE: Relations between North and South Korea entered an emotive phase on Saturday, even as they stayed the course during the latest round of the six-party talks in Beijing on steps towards North Korea’s denuclearisation.

South Korea’s President Lee Myung-bak urged Pyongyang to “cooperate” in a “swift investigation” of the death of a South Korean tourist, who was believed to have been killed by a North Korean soldier on Friday. The version in Seoul was that Park Wang-ja, a 53-year-old homemaker, was shot and killed by a soldier, as she apparently “crossed” into a restricted zone while taking a stroll on the beach near Mount Geumgang in North Korea. There was no immediate explanation for her apparent action. Following her death, though, tourist visits from South Korea were “suspended” for now.

The mountain resort has, in recent years, become the symbol of a possible future of inter-Korean amity at the grassroots. Nearly 2 million South Koreans are said to have visited that site since 1998, when it was opened during the first tentative moves towards rapprochement.

Mr. Lee told Parliament in Seoul, within a few hours after the incident, that “in inter-Korean relations, we need a new thinking and a new direction.” For “mutual benefit,” the two Koreas “must move from an ‘age of declarations’ to an ‘age of implementation’.”

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