By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
North Korea asked South Korea to help speed up modernizing its military communication lines at a working-level military meeting near the border, the Ministry of National Defense said Monday.
The 20-minute meeting, which began at 10 a.m., was held amid worsening relations between the two Koreas that have occurred since the inauguration of the conservative Lee Myung-bak administration which adopts a tougher policy toward the communist North.
Earlier this month, Pyongyang threatened to cut off all ties with Seoul, citing propaganda activities by some South Korean conservative civic groups.
During Monday's meeting involving four lieutenant colonels from both sides, the North again urged the South to prevent activists from floating propaganda leaflets over the border under balloons, the ministry said in a news release.
``The North repeated its claims made in the Oct. 2 colonels' talks,'' Col. Lee Sang-cheol, chief of the ministry's North Korea policy bureau, told reporters. ``We stressed that our government has been making efforts to stop such propaganda activities by some civic groups in person or via the media.''
In return, the South Korean delegation ``strongly demanded'' that the North immediately stop verbal attacks against President Lee Myung-bak, said the colonel.
He also said the South urged the North to take concrete measures to ease its immigration control on South Koreans and give South Korean businessmen freer access to an inter-Korean industrial zone in the North's border city of Gaeseong.
During the Oct. 2 meeting, the North demanded the South take measures to stop activists from sending leaflets to the North. Pyongyang threatened to evict all South Koreans from the Gaeseong industrial park unless Seoul stopped defector groups and activists from spreading the leaflets.
The two Koreas agreed to stop government-level propaganda after their first summit in 2000, but private groups have continued, despite pleas from the Seoul government and businesses operating in the industrial complex.
On Monday, some anti-communist civic groups in the South floated about 100,000 leaflets by balloon into the North from boats near both the eastern and western sea borders.
Families of South Koreans abducted by North Korea released balloons carrying anti-communist flyers near the inter-Korean border, defying Pyongyang's warnings amid a tense political atmosphere.
Eight representatives of the families set out on a fishing boat in the East Sea and flew 40,000 leaflets attached to dozens of balloons, also attaching Chinese yuan and U.S. dollars.
In a written statement printed on the water-proof leaflets, the families demanded the release of 487 South Korean abductees, including 436 fishermen.
North Korea kidnapped those citizens in the decades following the 1950-53 Korean War, according to the Unification Ministry. Officials estimate there are 540 South Korean prisoners of war still alive in the North. Pyongyang denies holding any South Korean nationals against their will.
The leaflets also contained messages urging North Koreans to rise up against their leader Kim Jong-il, describing him as a ``murderous'' dictator. They repeated claims that Kim is suffering from paralysis following a reported stroke in August.
During Monday's contact, Pyongyang also asked that Seoul expedite efforts to repair its military hotlines in the area near the western border that have been out of operation for months, Lee said.
``North Korea wants swift measures by South Korea to normalize inter-Korean military communications as there will be difficulties in repairing hotlines in winter,'' he said.
Pyongyang asked Seoul to provide necessary communication equipment and materials, including fiber-optic cables to replace copper cables, according to Lee.
South Korea agreed late last year to help modernize the North's outdated communications systems to secure better communication channels with the communist state, but has yet to do so amid continued tension with Pyongyang, which frequently calls the South Korean president a traitor.
gallantjung@koreatimes.co.kr
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