Seoul has decided to send a delegation to the 13th inter-Korean economic cooperation talks scheduled to open Wednesday in Pyongyang.

The government made the decision after concluding that it would be undesirable to link the talks to North Korea’s failure to implement the six-way denuclearization agreement reached February 13th in Beijing.

The North has refused to begin the shutdown of its nuclear facilities as called for in the accord, citing a delay in the transfer of its assets from Macao’s Banco Delta Asia.

In the upcoming talks, Pyongyang is expected to urge Seoul to agree on the shipment of 400-thousand tons of rice as it requested in a recent inter-Korean ministerial meeting. Attention is on how South Korea will view the request now that North Korea has missed the April 14th deadline to shut down its nuclear facilities.

Other pending issues include the reconnection of two cross-border railways.

During previous working-level economic cooperation talks held March 14th and 15th, the two Koreas failed to agree on when and how to conduct test runs for the railways.