The two Koreas tried to mend relations at Cabinet-level talks yesterday, but the North's refusal to act on a nuclear disarmament deal could lead Seoul to delay rice aid promised to its neighbor.

South Korea had pledged to send 400,000 tons of rice this month to help the North battle its chronic food shortages, but has indicated it would withhold the shipments for now.

"It is not a problem of 'yes' or 'no'," South Korea's Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung told reporters hours before the four-day inter-Korean meeting began at a posh Seoul hotel. "I don't think North Korea will protest the delay during the talks."

Analysts said the North, which has shown a short fuse at previous inter-Korean meetings, could get irritated if the rice aid is not delivered as planned, analysts said.

North Korean chief delegate Kwon Ho-ung avoided sensitive subjects on the first day.

"Chief delegate Lee Jae-joung and I share the sentiment that we are sowing the seed of unification," Kwon told Lee at their first meeting in the presence of reporters.

The North's firing of a short-range missile last week is likely to have exacerbated tensions between the two states, which remain technically at war.

Last year North Korea delegates stormed out of a meeting when Seoul said it would suspend rice handouts due to the North's test-firing of ballistic missiles.

The South has hesitated to resume regular rice aid because Pyongyang missed a deadline to start shutting down its nuclear reactor, the source of plutonium for bombs, that had been set in a six-country deal reached in February.

The two Koreas shared a moment of reconciliation on May 17 when they sent the first trains across their common border since the 1950-53 war. The truce which ended the fighting still holds, but with no sign of a permanent peace treaty.

The South, which promised about US$80 million in aid to the North to allow the train runs on tracks built by Seoul, wants to see regular rail travel between the two sides. The North has given no sign that it will agree to even one more run.

(China Daily via Agencies May 30, 2007)