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Two Koreas end military talks, agree to meet again
North Korea and South Korea ended unprecedented talks between their military generals to reduce tensions on the world's last Cold War frontier.
Both sides fell short of producing concrete steps on easing military tensions but agreed to resume the meeting next month, the first of its kind since the Korean War over five decades ago, officials said Wednesday.
Pyongyang had previously insisted on discussing military matters only directly with the United States, which maintains a strong military presence in the South.
The meeting's formal session lasted for two hours at Mount Kumgang, a tourist enclave on North Korea's eastern coast, but was followed by another four hours of informal discussions between working-level officials.
"Both sides agreed to reopen the general-level military talks at Mount Seolak in South Korea on June 3," Oh Jeong-Hee, a defense official in Seoul, told AFP.
"Both sides agreed to study each sides' proposals and continue discussions in future talks," the defense ministry said in a statement later.
South Korea, sending a navy general as chief delegate, hoped the day-long consultations would produce concrete measures to reduce the threat of clashes with North Korea off the west coast.
"Our delegates believe that the talks should be a first step towards reducing tension and building trust and most of all, work out measures to avoid accidental clashes in the West Sea (Yellow Sea)," Oh said.
The talks were the first between top-level officers in uniform from the two sides since the 1950-1953 Korean War.
At the talks, Seoul intended to propose setting up a military hotline and shared radio frequencies and flag signals for vessels to help prevent maritime skirmishes, Yonhap news agency said.
Seoul also wanted general-level talks to be held in a regular format for tension reduction, Yonhap said.
The two Koreas are still technically at war since the war ended in a fragile armistice rather than a peace treaty. North Korea's 1.1 million-strong army faces off against South Korea's 700,000 troops backed by 37,000 US soldiers.
Despite holding a historic summit of their leaders and launching cabinet-level talks for rapprochement in 2000, the two Koreas have yet to establish a regular military dialogue channel at senior level.
Defense chiefs from the two sides met for the first time in September in 2000 following a leaders' summit in Pyongyang. No follow-up defense chiefs meeting took place.
Inter-Korean relations have been disrupted in the past by naval skirmishes in the rich fishing grounds off the western coast during the May-June crab season.
Since 1999, dozens of casualties have been reported on both sides. The last clash in June 2002 left six South Korean sailors dead.
The two Koreas have been at loggerheads over the disputed Northern Limit Line and its adjacent rich fishing grounds in the Yellow Sea.
The line, drawn at the end of the Korean War, has served as a de-facto maritime border, but North Korea has never recognized it. Commodore Park Chung-Hwa, a one-star navy general, heads the five-strong South Korean delegation to Wednesday's military talks while Major General An Ik-San leads the North's team. |
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