Delegation heads of the two Koreas, the United States and China joined hands in a show of friendship yesterday as historic talks began in Geneva to end nearly 50 years of tension on the last major Cold War frontier. North and South Koreans faced each other inside a Geneva conference centre, seated in long tables arranged in a square, as they met for the first formal talks involving all four key participants in the conflict since the Korean War ended in 1953.
A structured peace process took more than four decades to materialise and its beginning has generated optimism. But the talks, which began with a two-day opening session in Geneva, are widely expected to last many months and even years.
The Chinese deputy foreign minister, Mr Tang Jiaxuan, heading Beijing's delegation, voiced confidence that a more permanent and new peace could be established through dialogue to end tension along the world's most heavily militarised border. "With concerted efforts the ship of the four-party talks has now set sail. We know for sure the future course will be long and difficult," he said. The US team is headed by assistant secretary of state for Asia and Pacific Affairs, Mr Stanley Roth. North Korea has sent its Deputy Foreign Minister, Mr Kim Gyegwan, and South Korea its ambassador to France, Mr Lee Seeyoung.
Washington and Seoul proposed the talks last year after it became clear the armistice that ended the 1950-'53 Korean War had frayed and North Korea, suffering from near-famine conditions, might become increasingly unstable.
When it had finally ended in a stalemate, the conflict had left some five million people dead, involved 22 nations - 19 of them fighting under a United Nations flag alongside the South Korean army against Chinese "volunteers" and the North.
Just before the talks started, North Korea reiterated its demand for the US to withdraw its 37,000 troops from the South. The official Korean Central News Agency yesterday said peace could never be ensured there while US troops remained.
Meanwhile, aid workers said yesterday that North Korea's health-care system is in tatters as winter nears, with hospital shelves bare of even basic drugs and doctors performing surgery without painkillers.
Common ailments have become common killers after natural disasters destroyed both crops and the country's health-care system, said Dr Karen Gottlieb, executive director of US-based AmeriCares Free Clinics Inc, speaking in Beijing.