Koreas talk amid UN sanction call
North and South Korea held rare talks lasting just under one hour, about their jointly managed Kaesong industrial park.
Hopes of progress were low amid tensions over the North’s nuclear programme.
Key Security Council members have agreed on the wording of a draft UN resolution to expand sanctions against North Korea, diplomats say.
The move is a response to Pyongyang’s recent nuclear and missile testing.
The BBC’s correspondent John Sudworth says the Kaesong plant was seen as a symbol of possible reconciliation between the two halves of this divided peninsular, but amid the worsening security situation, the future of the project is now in doubt.
Last month North Korea announced that it was unilaterally scrapping wage and rent agreements, and if the 100 or so South Korean companies operating there didn’t like it, they could leave. One South Korean firm did leave this week.
South Korea, for its part, wants a South Korean manager released from North Korean detention.
Officials in Seoul said they had low expectations from the talks, only the second this year, given the North’s recent nuclear and missile tests.
UN draft
Agreement on a UN resolution against those tests was reached by the five permanent council members, along with Japan and South Korea. The US’s UN envoy said the draft was “very strong”.
The full 15-nation council will discuss the draft later in the day with a vote expected on Friday.
The 34-point draft resolution proposes significantly tougher sanctions than those already in place.
It reasserts a UN ban on North Korean nuclear and ballistic missile tests and calls on Pyongyang to retract its decision to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT).
The draft also calls on all UN member states to carry out inspections of North Korean ships that may be carrying equipment related to weapons of mass destruction.
States are also requested to increase vigilance over their financial dealings with Pyongyang.
In recent weeks, North Korea has fired a long-range and several short-range missiles, and tested a nuclear device in defiance of the UN Security Council.
On Tuesday, North Korea said it would use nuclear weapons in a “merciless offensive” if provoked.
The US has said it has ruled out military action against the North in favour of international diplomatic efforts.
The BBC’s Jonathan Marcus says it remains to be seen whether China would be prepared to carry out extensive searches of North Korean ships.
But if both China and Russia approve the proposed resolution, it would send a powerful signal of disapproval to Pyongyang, says our correspondent.
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