North Korea on Thursday accused South Korea of deliberately sabotaging planned high-level talks with "arrogant obstructions" and warned that prospects for any future dialogue had been severely damaged.The two Koreas had initially agreed to hold their first high-level talks in six years in Seoul on Wednesday and Thursday this week, but they were called off at the last minute following a dispute over protocol.
The talks initiative had been seen as a step forward after months of soaring military tensions, but its collapse has instead resulted in a sizeable backwards stride.
Even the one positive development -- the restoration of an inter-government hotline -- seemed in doubt, with the North refusing to answer calls from the South since Wednesday morning.
"The South side had no intent to hold dialogue from the beginning," said a front man for the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea (CPRK) -- the state body that handles inter-Korean issues. "It only sought to create an obstacle to the talks, delay and then torpedo them," he said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, accusing the South of "arrogant obstructions and deliberate disturbance".