By Joint Press Corps & Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter


PANMUNJOM _ Military officers of South and North Korea Wednesday agreed to establish liaison offices to avoid accidental armed clashes along their disputed western sea border, the Defense Ministry said.

Colonels of the two sides met at the truce village of Panmunjom to set the date and the agenda for a third round of inter-Korean general-level talks on tension-reducing measures along the heavily fortified border, ministry officials said.

The two sides also agreed to restart dismantling remaining propaganda facilities along the 248-kilometer-long Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) from July 25 to Aug. 13, they said.

The two sides, however, failed to fix the date of the next meeting of military generals. They agreed to hold another working-level negotiations on Aug. 12 at the same venue, according to the officials.

In the ministerial talks in Seoul last month, the two Koreas agreed to resume general-level talks, which have been stalled for 13 months, at Mt. Paektu, North Korea’s highest peak.

In a four-point agreement struck at Wednesday’s meeting, the two Koreas agreed to operate the liaison offices from Aug. 13, said Army Col. Moon Seong-mook, head of a three-member South Korean delegation. Col. Young-cheol of the People’s Armed Forces led the Northern delegation.

``The establishment of the liaison offices was one of the measures agreed upon at the second round of general-level talks on June 3 last year to prevent unwanted armed clashes in the West Sea,’’ Moon told reporters. ``We hope that this time, the measures will be fully implemented.’’

On Aug. 10, the two militaries will connect telephone lines along the reconnected cross-border Kyongui Railway and conduct a test call, the colonel said.

The South’s Paju and the North’s Kaesong are likely candidates for liaison offices for military communication, a ministry official said on condition of anonymity.

A series of naval clashes over the years in the rich fishing grounds of the West Sea have left scores of casualties on both sides. The latest naval clash between the two sides in 2000 left six South Korean sailors dead.

The Northern Limit Line (NLL) is a controversial sea border of the two sides in the West Sea, which is viewed by the South as the de facto border line, but has not been accepted by the North.

At military talks at the South’s Mt. Sorak in June last year, the two sides signed a landmark accord to stop propaganda loudspeakers and signboards along the border in three phases, as well as to set up a naval hotline and share a radio frequency between the two navies.

Pyongyang, however, refused to heed the agreements a month after Seoul accused Northern ships of violating the sea border and failing to follow on initial agreement on the hotline.

The two Koreas are still technically at war and have been since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace agreement.

gallantjung@koreatimes.co.kr