Seoul: Inter-Korean talks on the North Korean nuclear issue dissolved into shouting matches behind closed doors, with officials cutting each other off and hurling insults, according to newly declassified government records on the 1991-1993 nuclear negotiations Tuesday.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the unification ministry released 3,836 pages of transcripts from 32 rounds of inter-Korean nuclear talks held between December 1991 and January 1993. This disclosure marked the ministry's eighth release of archival records on inter-Korean talks since May 2022. Central to these discussions was the Joint Declaration on the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, signed by the two Koreas on January 20, 1992.
Following the agreement, North Korea consented to allow inspections from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), while South Korea agreed to suspend its annual military exercise with the United States, known as Team Spirit. However, negotiations quickly became challenging. The joint nuclear control commission, established to manage mutual inspections, faced significant obstacles as the parties disagreed on inspection methods, timelines, and scope.
Seoul advocated for mutual pilot inspections of nuclear facilities on both sides, whereas Pyongyang insisted on including U.S. military bases in the South in the inspections and demanded the cessation of the joint military exercise beforehand. During a meeting on March 10, 1992, the talks almost collapsed with officials interrupting each other, shouting, and exchanging insults, including the term "thug," causing the session to descend into chaos.
In December of the same year, a South Korean official presented a photograph of North Korea's founder Kim Il-sung alongside Soviet Union leader Joseph Stalin to argue about the origins of the 1950-1953 Korean War. A North Korean official reacted by snatching the photo and tearing it, later realizing the grave transgression he had committed in the North by destroying an image of the country's leader.
The 22 rounds of talks on mutual nuclear inspections yielded no results. Analysts attributed the failure to North Korea's lack of sincerity and South Korea's inflexibility. Park Yong-han, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses and a member of the unification ministry's committee overseeing the records release, noted, "North Korea insisted issues related to its own nuclear program should be discussed with the IAEA, not South Korea."
Chung Seung-hoon, former head of the Inter-Korean Dialogue Headquarters, expressed regret over Seoul's rigid approach, stating, "The South demanded the North accept surprise inspections, including of its military bases, terms too coercive for Pyongyang to accept. Using only pressure as leverage without offering incentives was a weakness in our negotiating approach."