S. & N. Korea agree military talks soon.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
S. & N. Korea agree military talks soon.
Fri, 05-07-2004 - 8:46am

Seoul, Pyongyang Agree to Hold Military Talks Soon.


http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200405/kt2004050717395711950.htm


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 agreement 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 military dialogue, if held as planned, is expected to alleviate military tensions on their divided peninsula.

The third 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 consult one another on issues raised in the future.’’

Though the exact timeframe for the dramatically agreed defense talks has yet to be agreed upon, it will likely be sometime this month, according to South Korean officials.

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.

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

The two sides, however, reached no arrangement on the 10th round of cross border family reunions, which South Korea wanted to stage around June 15 for the reunion center and social-cultural exchange committee issues.

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

The meeting in Pyongyang comes a week before North Korea is to begin its first working group session with South Korea, the U.S. China, Japan and Russia on its nuclear program.

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

cl-Libraone~

 


Photobucket&nbs