2 Koreas Fail to Come to Full Accord on Summit

North and South Korean officials failed today to reach an agreement on procedures for an unprecedented June summit.

“North and South were able to reach agreement on most parts but still have to discuss some remaining issues,” said a spokesman for South Korean Minister of Unification Park Jae Kyu.

The two sides agreed to meet again Monday to hammer out procedural issues, including communications, security, protocol, accommodation and transportation--areas sensitive for two countries still technically at war.

They held their third round of vice-ministerial preparatory talks at Panmunjom, the U.N. truce village at the demilitarized zone dividing the Stalinist North from the capitalist South.

The talks are aimed at paving the way for South Korean President Kim Dae Jung to travel to the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, for a summit with the North’s reclusive leader Kim Jong Il from June 12 to 14. It would be the first meeting between leaders of the two countries.

The South’s delegation told reporters before the meeting that the two sides had discussed economic cooperation leading up to today’s talks but had agreed not to reveal details.

The next hurdle facing the two sides is setting a specific agenda, something previous plans for talks have foundered on since the early 1970s.

In a speech in March in Berlin, South Korea’s Kim proposed dealing with the issues of government-to-government economic cooperation, reunions of families separated since the Korean War in the early 1950s, peace and continued dialogue.

Questions remain about what issues the North will want discussed, but it has raised contentious matters in past discussions, causing long stalemates. These have included demands that the United States abandon its military presence in South Korea and that Seoul scrap its anti-communist National Security Law.