The second round of talks between unionized cargo truckers and the government ended without a breakthrough on Wednesday as the truckers’ walkout continued for a seventh day. 

Senior officials of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport sat down with representatives of the Cargo Truckers Solidarity at the government complex on Wednesday afternoon, following the first such talks held two days earlier. 

The latest talks were held a day after the government invoked a rare return-to-work order, with cement truckers becoming its first recipients. 

Both sides reiterated their established positions and failed to iron out major differences before the meeting ended abruptly some 40 minutes later. 

The truckers’ union accused the Yoon Suk Yeol administration and the transport ministry of showing no willingness to talk, claiming that the government refused to back down despite their sincere proposals. 

In a meeting with reporters following the meeting, transport minister Won Hee-ryong dismissed the union’s proposals as a strategy to buy time to continue their strike and said such a perfunctory meeting would be meaningless. 

The truckers’ union has demanded for an extension and an expansion of the Safe Trucking Freight System, which is set to expire at the end of the year. The government has agreed to extend it by three more years, but refused to apply the system to a wider array of truck drivers.