To Discuss Easing Tension Along Their Border


By Joint Press Corps and
Yoo Dong-ho Staff Reporter
PYONYANG - South and North Korea on Friday agreed to hold general-level military talks as early as this month.

The agreement came during a last-minute consultation between the two sides during the final day of the 14th inter-Korean ministerial dialogue here. The dramatic concord saved the dialogue from becoming a total failure but there is still doubt whether the military talks will take place because both sides have yet to fix the date.

``Our military authorities have given their consent to holding the meeting,’’ Kwon Ho-ung, the North’s top negotiator for the talks, told his South Korean counterpart, Jeong Se-hyun, in an extra round of meetings between the two top negotiators. The two Koreas agreed to hold the military talks aimed at reducing tensions in the West Sea during their February meeting but it has not taken place yet due to the North’s resistance.

The three-point joint press statement summing up four days of tedious negotiations stated that both sides ``agreed to hold a high-level military meeting and continue to discuss issues raised in the future.’’

``Though the exact timeframe for the defense talks has yet to be agreed upon, it will likely be around middle of this month,’’ Jeong said at a press conference after returning to Seoul.

The South’s point man on the North remained upbeat about the talks by saying, ``Now inter-Korean coordination reached an `irreversible stage’ as infrastructure has been set up for joint economic projects as well as a thaw in military tension.’’

During this week’s talks, South Korea has called for the general-level military dialogue, agreed at the previous Cabinet-level North-South talks, on tensions over poorly marked inter-Korean maritime borders in the West Sea.

A series of deadly skirmishes have occurred over the last several years when northern fishing boats regularly crossed the Northern Limit Line into southern waters to catch crabs around this time of year and caused gun battles in 1999 and 2002.

The two sides came to the view that the 10th round of cross border family reunions should be staged around June 20, Jeong said. However they reached no arrangement on setting up liaison offices in Seoul and Pyongyang for further social-cultural exchange.

The talks earlier reached an impasse with the two sides wrangling over military issues right down the line. The North’s negotiators demanded a halt to joint Seoul-Washington military drills while the south’s counterpart didn’t move a budge from its stance to continue the ``defense-oriented’’ joint military exercises.

Seoul and Pyongyang agreed to hold the next round of Cabinet-level talks in Seoul on August 3-6.

The South’s five-member delegation, led by Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun, returned home on a chartered flight from Pyongyang.

The two Koreas are technically at war, with no peace treaty signed at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

yoodh@koreatimes.co.kr