South and North Korea will again try to find ways to prevent accidental naval clashes on their disputed sea border and ensure the safe operation of cross-border railways on Thursday.
General-level officers from the two Koreas are to sit down together at the truce village of Panmunjom at 10 a.m. (Seoul time) on the last day of their three-day talks.
On Wednesday, South and North Korea failed to make headway on a security guarantee for cross-border railways and methods of preventing accidental armed clashes.
Efforts by South Korea to prevent accidental naval clashes on the disputed sea border encountered a stumbling block as the communist country insisted on drawing a new border in the West Sea, according to South Korean officials.
South Korea hopes to discuss the new sea border at a fresh round of inter-Korean defense chiefs' talks, but North Korea insisted on tackling the issue during the military talks, the fourth since the 2000 historic inter-Korean summit.
North Korea holds the position that the territorial dispute will not be resolved until a new border is drawn further south of its coastline.
In a Wednesday meeting, Army Lt. Gen. Kim Yong-chol stressed that "the fundamental issue" should be resolved first, putting aside all claims by both sides, according to South Korean pool reports. Kim leads the North Korean delegation to the talks.
"They declined to hold defense chiefs' talks to discuss the sea border issue," Col. Moon Sung-mook, spokesman for the South Korean delegation, said in a press briefing. "The North did not even acknowledge the principle of respecting the Northern Limit Line."
The defense chiefs of the two Koreas met in 2000 for the first time since the Korean War as part of cross-border exchanges following the inter-Korean summit.
The western sea border was not clearly marked when the 1950-53 Korean War ended. The U.S.-led U.N. Command delineated a de facto border, the Northern Limit Line, in the area, but the North has never recognized it.
In 1999 and again in 2002, the navies of the two Koreas fought bloody gun battles in the area that resulted in heavy casualties on both sides. Both clashes occurred in June, the peak of the blue crab season, which usually starts in March.
Inter-Korean relations have warmed considerably since the 2000 summit, but tension persists since the rival states are still technically in a state of war, as no peace treaty was signed at the end of the Korean War.
High on the agenda proposed by South Korea are the safe operation of a set of cross-border railway lines and joint measures to prevent accidental clashes along the disputed western sea border ahead of the peak of the blue crab season in the area.
The safe operation of the railway lines is drawing keen attention as former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung hopes to travel to Pyongyang 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.
The rail lines, one cutting across the western section of the border and the other crossing the eastern side, have been completed and are to undergo test runs from May 25. A set of parallel roads have been in use since last year for South Koreans traveling to the North.
The reconnection of the severed cross-border train lines was one of the tangible inter-Korean rapprochement projects agreed upon following the historic summit of the two Kims.
According to sources, the North Korean military is reluctant to sign an agreement on train operations, as they are concerned about possible leaks of military information.
"They didn't oppose the necessity of a military agreement on safe rail passage, but held the position that it is was not an issue to be addressed in the general-level talks," said Col. Moon Sung-mook, spokesman for the South Korean delegation to the talks.
The high-level military talks usually falter because of the North's long-held position that a new border be drawn further south of its coastline on the West Sea.
Later Tuesday, however, the North's media reported that the communist country acknowledges South Korea's sovereignty over five islands in the West Sea and is willing to establish a joint fishing area at the sea border.
"If the joint fishing area is established, follow-up military guarantee measures will be addressed at working-level talks on a new maritime sea border," Kim Yong-chol was quoted as saying.
In March, South and North Korea resumed general-level military discussions 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 on drawing a new sea border in the West Sea.
In previous rounds of general-level talks, the sides agreed on a set of tension-reducing measures such as the dismantlement of propaganda facilities along the land border known as the Military Demarcation line, but those agreements have not been fully implemented. SEOUL/PANMUNJOM, May 18 (Yonhap News)
Inter-Korean military talks deadlocked over new sea border |
