South Korea said today that next week's planned ministerial talks with North Korea would go ahead, despite the sudden rise in tension over Pyongyang's test firing of missiles.
A South Korean Unification Ministry official said it would be the first face-to-face meeting of the two sides since Wednesday's missile launches by the North triggered international condemnation.
Seoul today postponed military talks with the North. South Korean officials had said after the missile firings that they were not sure if they would attend the scheduled cabinet-level talks.
"The government has decided to continue the efforts for dialogue in order to work through the current situation created by the North's missile launch," ministry official Lee Kwan-se told a news conference.
South Korea has said its ties with the North have been strained by Pyongyang's decision to test fire missiles, but has called for diplomacy in the crisis.
The talks are slated to run from July 11 to July 14 in the South Korean port city of Pusan. The two will also touch on stalled discussions on ending North Korea's nuclear weapons programmes, Lee said.
The South's delegation will be led by its unification minister.
Separate talks among the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States on the North's nuclear weapons programmes have been stalled since last November.