PANMUNJOM, Korea, May 16 (Yonhap News) -- South and North Korea opened high-level military talks here on Tuesday to discuss tension-easing measures that might include a guarantee for the safety of inter-Korean rail operations.
A five-member South Korean delegation, led by Maj. Gen. Han Min-koo, left Seoul at about 7:30 a.m. for a one-hour drive to the inter-Korean truce village of Panmunjom, a venue for the meeting.
"We feel great responsibility because many people hope progress should be made toward easing tension on the Korean Peninsula," a member of the South Korean delegation told reporters in Seoul before leaving for Panmunjom.
The three-day meeting, the fourth since the historic inter-Korean summit in 2000, was opened at the House of Peace, a South Korean administrative building inside the buffer zone.
Army Lt. Gen. Kim Yong-chol, who leads the North Korean delegation, is a well-known negotiator. He led North Korean delegations for high-level talks between the two Koreas in the early 1990s. He was also in charge of security protocol affairs ahead of the summit between the leaders of the two Koreas in 2000.
Top South Korean officials believe that if the military talks make headway, it would help resolve the prolonged international tension over the North's nuclear weapons program.
According to them, the focus of this week's general-level talks will be on working out joint measures to prevent accidental clashes along the disputed western sea border ahead of the blue crab season in the area.
Inter-Korean relations have warmed considerably since the 2000 summit, but tension persists as the rival states are still technically in a state of war as no peace treaty was signed at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.
"During the meeting, the two Koreas will try to find ways to prevent naval clashes along the western sea border and establish a joint fishing area there," a Defense Ministry official said on condition of anonymity.
The western sea border was not clearly marked when the Korean conflict ended. The U.S.-led U.N. Command delineated a de facto border, called the Northern Limit Line, in the area, but the North has never recognized it.
In 1998 and again in 2002, the navies of the two Koreas fought gun battles in the area that resulted in heavy casualties on both sides. Both clashes occurred in June when the blue crab season, which usually starts in March, peaks.
The establishment of a joint fishing area will also top the agenda of this week's meeting, South Korean officials said, adding that other topics will include security guarantees for cross-border rail links.
In March, South and North Korea resumed general-level military talks for the first time since June last year. Moreover, North Korea raised hope for progress in the talks after proposing that each delegation be led by a two-star general instead of a brigadier general.
But the two sides failed to find common ground on their agenda items, with North Korea sticking to its long-held position that the dispute will not be resolved until a new border is drawn further south of its coastline, according to South Korean officials.
The agenda of this week's military talks might include a proposal for the two sides to militarily guarantee the security of a set of cross-border rail lines.
The rail lines, one cutting across the western section of the border and the other crossing the eastern part, have been completed and are to undergo test runs from May 25. A set of parallel roads has been in use since last year for South Koreans traveling to the North.
A security guarantee for the rail links is drawing keen attention as former South Korean president and Nobel laureate Kim Dae-jung hopes to visit North Korea by train next month for a second meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. The two met in the North's capital, Pyongyang, in 2000.
In previous rounds of general-level talks, the sides agreed on a set of tension-reducing measures such as dismantlement of propaganda facilities along the land border known as the Military Demarcation line, but those agreements were not fully implemented.
Inter-Korean exchanges keep expanding despite North Korea's refusal to rejoin stalled six-nation talks on its nuclear weapons program. The North vows to stay away from the nuclear talks until the U.S. lifts financial sanctions implemented in response to its alleged counterfeiting of U.S. dollars.
Inter-Korean militaries discuss tension-reducing measures |
