South Korean negotiators headed home from the North empty-handed on Wednesday as an agreement to restart exchanges unravelled.
"What both sides had neared an agreement on yesterday came to nothing," a South Korean Unification Ministry official said.
All-night negotiations at the North Korean resort of Mount Kumgang failed to remove hurdles to finalising an agreement to hold a new round of reunions next month for families separated since the early 1950s, as well as further ministerial and economic talks.
On Tuesday, Seoul said the two sides had agreed to reunite 100 Koreans from each side with their relatives across the world's most militarised frontier between December 10 and 16 at Mount Kumgang.
But the fifth day of ministerial talks bogged down over the wording of a joint communique to mask differences on anti-terrorism.
Negotiators also remained far apart on the venue for the next ministry-level meeting and economic talks.
At the core of the dispute is the North's objection to the emergency alert against terrorism that South Korea put in place after the September 11 attacks on the United States, South Korean officials said.
North Korea cited the South Korean security alert when it postponed, at the last minute, family reunions due to take place in mid-October. Throughout the Friday-Wednesday talks, North Korea demand that South Korea lift the alert.
South Korea rejects the North's assertion that the alert is directed at Pyongyang. North Korea has a long history of diplomatic brinkmanship and most analysts in Seoul believe the North has raised the security issue as a negotiating tactic.
Seoul has made compromises to Pyongyang by sending the ministers to Mount Kumgang and agreeing to hold the next reunions there, despite the difficulty of transporting elderly Koreans in mid-winter to see their relatives.
But it has drawn the line on the security alert, saying it is designed to safeguard South Korean citizens and resident foreigners, including 37,000 US troops.
The US troops have been in South Korea since the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in an armed truce that has yet to be replaced with a peace accord.
(China Daily November 14, 2001)
