The government has cautioned against exchanging more arguments with North Korea over its expression of regret at the recent inter-Korean truce village talks.
 
Seoul's Unification Ministry on Wednesday addressed remarks from the North's Defense Commission that downplayed the meaning of "regret," which North Korean delegates expressed over last month's land mine explosions.
 
Ministry spokesman Jeong Joon-hee told reporters that the "correct answer" to the dispute is that the two Koreas included an expression of the North’s regret and related clauses in their joint communique following the high-level talks.
 
Jeong said that the matter should be understood in consideration of international practices and previous talks that the two Koreas have held, adding that various points the North brought up were not so meaningful.
 
He then stressed that now is not the time to argue back and forth over the wordings of the agreement but to faithfully observe the agreements.
 
On the North’s call for South Korean officials who took part in the high-level talks to watch what they say, Jeong again reiterated that it was not the time to fight over the wordings.
 
Jeong’s remarks came shortly after the North again denied its involvement in the land mine blasts. 
 
In a spokesman's statement, the North’s National Defense Commission said Wednesday that Pyongyang delegates' expression of "regret" at the recent truce village talks only meant sympathy over what happened.
 
The spokesman said South Korean authorities translated the regret as an apology, denouncing the South for making such a move without knowing the significance and principle of the word ‘regret.’