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Army Lt. Gen Ahn Ik-san, leader of the North Korean delegation in the general-level military talks at Unification House (Tongilgak) in Panmunjeom, holds up a photograph of a tree planted by late former President Roh Moo-hyun in 2007 as a gesture of peace and goodwill, confirming that the tree is alive and flourishing, on June 14. (Baek So-ah, staff photographer)
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General-level talks at Panmunjeom gain common ground but fail to bridge gaps on several issues
South and North Korean military authorities discussed restoring military communication lines in the East and West Sea regions at an eighth round of general-level inter-Korean talks at Panmunjeom on June 14. But the two sides were unable to establish a schedule for their next meeting, and sources reported that they failed to bridge differences on several contentious issues. In a joint press statement issued after the meeting that morning at the Unification House (Tongilgak) on the North Korean side of Panmunjeom, the South and North Korean delegations said the two sides “mutually agreed to fully honor the agreement for inter-Korean general-level military talks on June 4, 2004, to prevent clashes in the West Sea, and to fully restore military communication lines in the East and West Sea regions.” The 2004 agreement cited in the statement is the “Agreement on the Prevention of Accidental Armed Conflict in the West Sea and Stopping of Propaganda Loudspeaker Activities and Removal of Means of Propaganda in the Military Demarcation Line Region,” which was reached at the second inter-Korean general-level talks on June 4, 2004. As regards measures to prevent accidental clashes in the West Sea, the agreement included communications between South and North Korean warships over the international merchant marine network, designation and application of regulations on semaphore flag signals and light signals, and the establishment of a West Sea communications liaison office. It also established a basis for cooperation on policing Chinese fishing boat activities near the Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the West Sea by prescribing the exchange of information on illegally fishing vessels from third countries. The latest agreement reaffirmed of the existing agreements to prevent unintended clashes in the West – but did not go so far as to designate the area around the NLL in the West as a “maritime peace zone” as initially agreed upon in the Panmunjeom Declaration from the Apr. 27 inter-Korean summit. The restoration of military communication lines, which are currently not fully functioning, is being seen as a measure to prevent accidental clashes and build trust. The West Sea region communication line currently set up at the Dorasan customs, immigration, and quarantine (CIQ) office in Paju originally had three copper wire circuits, to which three optical circuits were added in Jan. 2010; at present, however, only one of the copper wire circuits was confirmed to be working properly. Three military communication circuits for the East Sea zone had been set up at the Goseong CIQ office in Gangwon Province but were later destroyed in a Nov. 2010 wildfire. “It looks like we’re going to need to look into installing all-new lines to get the military communication lines for the East and West Sea regions restored,” a military official said. But the two sides were unable to reach agreements on other issues. In their joint press statement, they said they had “sincerely discussed all necessary areas in terms of reducing military tensions on the Korean Peninsula and practically eliminating the threat of war.” “Opinions were sufficiently exchanged on the matter of halting all hostile activities; establishing the area around the Northern Limit Line in the West Sea as a maritime peace zone; formulating military guarantees for travel and communication; and pursuing a test demilitarization of the Joint Security Area at Panmunjeom,” the statement reported. Disagreements regarding unearthing remains of soldiers in DMZ But no additional agreements were included in the joint statement. The two sides also did not appear to have reached agreements on the joint unearthing of human remains as recently mentioned by President Moon Jae-in, or the organizing of inter-Korean defense minister talks. “To begin with, we made the decision to prioritize the military area with the general-level talks, as agreed upon in the Panmunjeom Declaration,” explained the South Korean side’s senior representative, Army major general and Ministry of National Defense North Korea policy officer Kim Do-gyun. “I think the more appropriate thing would be to hold defense minister talks after those agreements have been reached,” Kim added. The two sides did not even reach an agreement on the date for the next set of general-level talks. Kim indicated his disappointment in closing remarks for the meeting that day. “I look forward to us to holding additional general-level or working-level military talks in June and July to produce something with a deeper level of results,” he said. North Korea’s representatives at the talks also reportedly mentioned the issue of halting joint South Korea-US military exercises. “There were calls from the North’s delegation to suspend the joint South Korea-US military exercises in the interest of implementing the Panmunjeom Declaration, to which our side responded that we could ‘resolve those concerns through mutual trust-building’ and that ‘[related] discussions between South Korea and the US are under way,’” a military official said. The general-level talks followed upon agreements reached at two recent inter-Korean summits. The last time inter-Korean general-level talks were held to discuss military issues between South and North was 10 years and six months ago in Dec. 2007 under the Roh Moo-hyun administration. By Park Byong-su, senior staff writer Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]
