By Kim Se-jeong
The government said Tuesday it will officially contact North Korea as early as today with a separate proposal for bilateral denuclearization talks, alongside pending military ones.
Speaking to the Munhwa Ilbo, an anonymous official said Seoul will send telegrams either today or Thursday. He added, “We haven’t decided on whether to send two separate telegrams or to include everything in one.”
Last week, Pyongyang proposed high-level military talks to be held in February, and a preparatory meeting at the end of January.
It said the talks will encompass “all currently pending military issues” including the attacks on the frigate Cheonan and Yeonpyeong Island, which resulted in the deaths of fifty people including two civilians.
The South had rejected the North’s earlier proposal for talks this year, but accepted the latest one after the latter signaled that it was ready to address the two incidents.
Pyongyang has been dismissing Seoul’s demand for an apology for both. It claimed to have had nothing to do with the sinking of the Cheonan; and cited self-defense for the shelling of Yeonpyeong.
At the first meeting, the South is expecting the North to offer substantial measures as an apology, and assurances that there will be no recurrences.
The meeting on denuclearization is aimed to examine Pyongyang’s willingness to abandon its nuclear aspirations prior to the six-party talks.
The summit between President Barack Obama of the United States and his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao set the mood for a resumption of the long-standing negotiations on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
James Steinberg, deputy secretary of the U.S. State Department, will arrive in Seoul today to deliver a briefing on the results of the China-U.S. summit held last week in Washington, D.C.
