North and South Korea must seize this chance to talk

Nothing about North Korea can be predicted with certainty. Secrecy and a lack of foreign contact means that its leaders and the way they think are shrouded in mystery. A surprise visit last week by three of the nation's top cadres to the Asian Games in Incheon, meetings with South Korean officials and an agreement to resume high-level talks, are therefore welcome developments. An exchange of gunfire across their border on Friday may have jeopardised the progress. However, both sides have to make the most of the goodwill created just days earlier to ensure the talks take place.

A difficult year in relations have been made more challenging by South Korean President Park Geun-hye and the North's leader, Kim Jong-un, taking a tough line towards one another. The North's missiles and threats to carry out another nuclear test, as happened shortly after Park took office last year, have led to missed opportunities. The Asian Games offered a chance to make amends, but the South insisted on firm conditions for the participation of the North's team and its popular cheerleading squad. As a result, the cheerleaders did not attend and the North used the event for domestic point-scoring.

From a diplomatic perspective, the top-level military delegation comprising Hwang Pyong-so, Choe Ryong-hae and Kim Yang-gon that arrived unannounced was a dramatic event. The structure of the North Korean leadership is opaque, but Hwang is believed to be the country's most important figure after Kim Jong-un. They did not meet Park, but talks were held with Prime Minister Chung Hong-won, Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae and the president's national security adviser.

More than a decade has passed since so senior a delegation visited the South. That the trip came while Kim Jong-un has been absent from public view - the official explanation is ill health - makes circumstances even more intriguing. What specifically was discussed is unknown, but it is a good sign that they met and agreed to more meaningful dialogue. The North yesterday accused the South of starting the latest flare-up by dropping propaganda leaflets from balloons on its side of the border and threatened that the talks were now "all but scrapped". But bringing stability to the Korean peninsula is ultimately a bilateral matter and on numerous issues, economics the most significant, there is common ground. A chance to begin the thaw has arisen and the nations' leaderships have to move proactively forward.