South Korea gears up for military talks with NK
With North Korea’s high-level delegation having returned home after waging a peace offensive during the PyeongChang Olympics, South Korea is preparing to continue the momentum for an inter-Korean thaw by resuming long-stalled military talks.
Cheong Wa Dae and the ruling Democratic Party of Korea said that the resumption of military talks is crucial to easing cross-border tensions that have been lessened since the North Korean participation in the Winter Olympics.
“In order to move forward with exchanges and cooperation between the two Koreas, our urgent task is to hold military talks and reunions of separated families,” Rep. Woo Won-sik, the ruling Democratic Party floor leader, said Tuesday.
An anonymous senior Cheong Wa Dae official also said Tuesday that the two Koreas would begin with what they had agreed upon, adding future dialogue would begin with working-level military talks and proceed gradually to a more senior level, according to Yonhap News Agency.
In a rare inter-Korean talk held for the first time in about two years on Jan. 9, the two Koreas agreed to hold a military dialogue, with Pyongyang agreeing to send its delegates of athletes and a cheering squad to the Olympics.
South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense said the military is working on the military talks and waiting for North Korea to respond to the military dialogue proposal first made in July 2017.
“Although there has been no specific move (by North Korea), we are preparing for it,” Defense Ministry Spokesperson Choi Hyun-soo said during a press briefing.
The spokesperson also confirmed that the restored military hotline on the West Sea has been working without a hitch. Last month, the two Koreas restored the communication line that Pyongyang severed in 2016 to protest Seoul’s shuttering of a joint industrial complex north of the border in Kaesong.
While South Korea is likely to focus on implementing measures to prevent accidental skirmishes in the border region, there is the chance that North Korea might raise broader issues that could be sensitive to South Korea and the US.
Among them are the resumption of the joint South Korea and US military exercises, which the allies said would resume upon the conclusion of the Olympics and Paralympics in March. North Koreans have urged the allies to halt the drills, denouncing them as rehearsals for war.
Another point of contention is whether the two Koreas will suspend their cross-border propaganda broadcasts. North Korea threatened to shoot down South Korean speakers in August 2015, when the South began the broadcasts after border guards were maimed by land mines planted by the North.
By Yeo Jun-suk (jasonyeo@heraldcorp.com)
- 最近发表
-
- Swifties for Kamala raises over $100,000 in donations for Harris campaign
- A drunken American saluted Hitler in Germany and it did not go well for him
- 美丽新疆,繁荣兵团!70余家兵团企业亮相第二十届文博会
- If you want to enrage a Brit, change their favourite baking show
- We Cannot Live Without Cryptography!
- 6 of history's greatest minds that I could easily defeat in Mario Kart 64
- Public corporations see earnings surge in 2014
- You can bring your Galaxy Note7 on an airplane, just don't turn it on or plug it in
- US to oppose North Korean worker dispatch to occupied Ukrainian territory: State Dept.
- Here's why the theory that Taylor Swift is a satanist clone absolutely checks out
- 随机阅读
-
- The Astounding World of Automata
- [INTERVIEW] Russia brushes off arms deal allegations, flaunts ties with North Korea
- Please enjoy this footage of Kylie and Kendall Jenner stuck in an elevator
- 美丽新疆,繁荣兵团!70余家兵团企业亮相第二十届文博会
- How do you make safe, cheap nuclear reactors? Bury them a mile deep
- Ronaldinho wishes Messi 'many moments of joy' after PSG move
- N. Korean leader attends farm machinery exhibition
- Jeff Bezos just revealed his plans for Blue Origin's biggest rocket yet
- Sinkhole swallows up car, injuring 2 in Seoul
- Instagram husband's parody wellness account is comedy gold
- What do you think of Cam Newton's new touchdown dance?
- #StopHindiChauvinism has taken over Indian Twitter
- 12 Places that Celebrate Women in Science
- Demand for Chinese yuan grows in N. Korean private markets: report
- Cheaper Microsoft mixed reality headsets are on the way
- N. Korea claims to have developed panacea for MERS
- 13 Unbelievable Underwater Wonders in Florida
- UK politicians hold a tearful vigil for a clock because they clearly have nothing better to do
- A drunken American saluted Hitler in Germany and it did not go well for him
- Demand for Chinese yuan grows in N. Korean private markets: report
- 搜索
-
- 友情链接
-