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Pyongyang walks out of Korea talks
![]() North Korean missiles on display in South Korea. RELATEDSPECIAL REPORTYOUR E-MAIL ALERTS(CNN) -- South Korea Thursday refused to discuss providing more food aid to North Korea in the wake of its recent missile tests, prompting Pyongyang to walk out of the ministerial meeting in the southern port city of Busan, South Korea. According to a North Korean statement handed out to the media before its delegation left, North Korea said "the South bears full responsibility for the talks ending earlier than scheduled." Throughout the two-day talks, South Korea pressed North Korea to return to the six-party talks to address Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program. North Korea replied in a statement, "these are the South-North Korea talks, not the six-party talks," asserting the South was trying to discuss matters "not inter-Korean related." The North Korean statement also said, "from the beginning, the South had other thoughts in mind and pursued impure motives." The ministerial meeting, which began Wednesday, was the first since Pyongyang test-fired missiles last week. On Wednesday, when asked about the recent tests, North Korea referred the South Korean delegation to a previous statement from Pyongyang that said it has the right to launch such tests. South Korea said Pyongyang's response "was sufficient," according to the ministry's Web site. In Pyongyang's opening statement, the delegation leader said that South and North Korea "should not be affected by the changes in political situations" and should "work together to get rid of factors that are threatening the development of South-North relations." It is the Koreas' 19th ministerial meeting, which have been held on-and-off for six years, and the agenda is usually limited to inter-Korean issues. The North usually asks for South Korean aid, rice and fertilizer and demand the removal of U.S. troops from the South and protest U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises. In the past, South Korea has asked for brief reunions of families divided by the Korean War, as well as cooperation on the construction of a railway and highway between the two countries. More recently, the South has taken the opportunity to urge North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons program. CNN's Sohn Jie-Ae in Seoul contributed to this report
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