Inter-Korean talks end without agreement

SEOUL: Military officers from North and South Korea on Wednesday ended two days of talks without reaching agreement, Yonhap news agency reported.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/1109637/1/.html




North and South Korea agree talks on family reunions
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12401126?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Just watched a news report on Al Jazeera regarding this. They said the North Koreans walked out when agreement couldn't be reached regarding the meeting's agenda.

Rickster58 wrote:Just watched a news report on Al Jazeera regarding this. They said the North Koreans walked out when agreement couldn't be reached regarding the meeting's agenda.

What time wasters Rickster. Fancy spending 2 days discussing the agenda of a meeting.

Strawberry wrote:

Rickster58 wrote:Just watched a news report on Al Jazeera regarding this. They said the North Koreans walked out when agreement couldn't be reached regarding the meeting's agenda.

What time wasters Rickster. Fancy spending 2 days discussing the agenda of a meeting.

LOL That's nothing. At the Paris peace talks to end the war in Vietnam, they spent months arguing about the shape of the TABLE!

South and North Korea ended preliminary military talks Wednesday without an agreement as the North refused to apologize and admit its responsibility for deadly provocations last year, officials said.

http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2011/02/09/83/0301000000AEN20110209009100315F.HTML

Joe Bese wrote:

Strawberry wrote:

Rickster58 wrote:Just watched a news report on Al Jazeera regarding this. They said the North Koreans walked out when agreement couldn't be reached regarding the meeting's agenda.

What time wasters Rickster. Fancy spending 2 days discussing the agenda of a meeting.

LOL That's nothing. At the Paris peace talks to end the war in Vietnam, they spent months arguing about the shape of the TABLE!

OMG what are these people like. No wonder the world is a mess.

What was the shape of the table in the end?

Joe Bese wrote: At the Paris peace talks to end the war in Vietnam, they spent months arguing about the shape of the TABLE!

You beat me to it, Joe!

Apparently there is some sort of upper hand or "face" to be gained by excercising the percieved luxury of bogging down talks over pettier and pettier details.

The implied message is "we don't really have to talk with you if we don't want to, and we are going to make you meet our demands every petty step of the way. If you want to talk, you talk on our terms".

Think macro in micro -- one party making the other bend to the first party's will on even the tiniest detail, sets the tone and format for everything.

Strawberry wrote:
What was the shape of the table in the end?

The Soviet ambassador to France made a recommendation for the Paris peace talks: use a round table and two opposite rectangular tables off the round table for secretaries with no flags or plates for names. That way, the parties could speak of either a two-or four-sided conference, depending on their view...

Read more: http://www.americanforeignrelations.com/O-W/The-Vietnam-War-and-Its-Impact-Different-shapes-different-languages.html#ixzz1DVmEPeQo

goodmockingbird wrote:

Strawberry wrote:
What was the shape of the table in the end?

The Soviet ambassador to France made a recommendation for the Paris peace talks: use a round table and two opposite rectangular tables off the round table for secretaries with no flags or plates for names. That way, the parties could speak of either a two-or four-sided conference, depending on their view...

Read more: http://www.americanforeignrelations.com/O-W/The-Vietnam-War-and-Its-Impact-Different-shapes-different-languages.html#ixzz1DVmEPeQo

That's interesting. I don't know what they settled on, but I remember it was considered a big breakthrough when they finally agreed. Who knows what sort of deals were made just to get there.