Unprecedented Simultaneous Meetings Held in Sokcho and Pyongyang


By Joint Press Corps & Ryu Jin
Staff Reporter

MT. SORAK - South Korea demanded in the second round of inter-Korean military talks on Thursday that both navies set up a hotline and share a common radio frequency to avoid accidental armed clashes along the western sea border.

In the one-day meeting that lasted until late into the night, general-grade military officers from the two Koreas sought ways to ease tension and build up confidence on the peninsula.

North Korean delegates were said to have recognized the urgency of the joint measures proposed by the South, but insisted the two sides stop propaganda broadcasts from loudspeakers along the land border first.

The North was also said to have insisted that it couldn’t accept the Northern Limit Line (NLL), according to sources familiar with the rare military talks. The NLL, which was unilaterally drawn by the U.S.-led United Nations Command, has since served as a de facto border, but the North has not accepted it.

Before starting the meeting, the delegates, all in military uniforms, exchanged greetings and pledged to make joint efforts to reduce tension along their heavily fortified border.

``South and North Korea have protracted time to build confidence. We hope there will be good results at today’s session,’’ Park Chung-hwa, a navy commodore leading the South Korean delegation, said.

Park’s Northern counterpart An Ik-san, also a one-star general, affirmatively responded by saying, ``We are of the same view as you.’’

The meeting place, a hotel at Mt. Sorak, is about 10 kilometers south of the border and 200 kilometers northeast of Seoul. The five-member North Korean delegation arrived at the hotel early in the morning after traveling by car across the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas.

Direct inter-Korean military contacts are rare in contrast to a series of economic exchanges since the historic inter-Korean summit in 2000. The North had insisted the U.S. should deal with

military issues since the armistice pact of the 1950-53 Korean War was signed by the North and the U.S., excluding South Korea.

The defense chiefs of the two Koreas met for the first time following the 2000 summit of their leaders but no significant progress was made. North Korea only allowed colonel-level officers to get involved in talks with the South.

South Korea has 690,000 troops, backed by 37,000 U.S. soldiers, facing North Korea’s 1.1 million-strong armed forces, the world’s fifth largest.

In a dual track effort, working-level officials from the two Koreas embarked on full-blown economic talks in the North’s capital city of Pyongyang to discuss ways to further promote cross-border economic projects.

In his keynote speech, Seoul’s chief delegate Kim Gwang-lim, vice Finance and Economy Minister, proposed the two Koreas expedite their continued efforts for key inter-Korean economic projects.

Kim also suggested that South Korean engineers working on joint projects be allowed to stay longer in the North so that they can transfer industrial technology to North Korean workers.

In the previous inter-Korean economic cooperation talks, which ended in Seoul last April, the two Koreas also agreed to finish

a 10,000-pyong model program inside the Kaesong complex by June to invite some Korean firms to set up business there.

The North’s chief delegate, Choe Yong-gon, said his country will step up economic cooperation with South Korea, noting the historic significance of the 4th anniversary on the landmark June 15 inter-Korean summit in 2000.

jinryu@koreatimes.co.kr