N.Korea remains silent over proposal for military talks

By Yi Whan-woo

North Korea remained silent as of 10 p.m. Thursday on South Korea’s offer to hold joint military talks at the border today, according to government officials.

“We have not heard from the North yet concerning the military talks. We’re still waiting (for its reply),” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Moon Sang-gyun told reporters.

This suggests that North Korean decision-makers may be in a heated debate over whether to accept the South’s proposal.

Some officials here said Seoul should be patient in resuming dialogue with Pyongyang in a follow-up to President Moon Jae-in’s peace overture made in his speech in Berlin early in July.

The government offered to hold a military dialogue Monday, as a first step to lay the groundwork for Moon’s peace initiative.

Seoul is also awaiting Pyongyang’s response on its proposal to hold joint Red Cross talks Aug. 1 for a possible reunion of family members separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.

Spokesman Moon said the defense ministry has been consulting with relevant ministries on whether the military talks can be rescheduled if the North gives a response.

“We’re making sure to prepare for the talks without any setbacks at the working-level,” he said. “The military communication line on our side is open and we’re ready to respond at any time.”

In a separate press briefing, a Ministry of Unification official urged North Korea to respond, saying there will be “no deadline” in receiving an answer from Pyongyang.

The official explained that a South Korean officer at the inter-Korean truce village of Panmunjeom called the North Korean side at 9 a.m. but there was no answer.

“It’s true the two sides have had their ups and downs in relations with each other. Still, we need to head toward a road to build mutual trust in line with the inter-Korean agreements reached in the past,” the unification ministry official said on condition of anonymity. “There will be no deadline in our efforts to resolve conflict through dialogue. And I believe the North Korean authorities are not be much different in that regard.”

Meanwhile the Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the North Korean Workers’ Party, accused South Korea of being illogical in a column, Thursday.

It claimed that Seoul has been calling for improvement on inter-Korean ties on one hand while being hostile and willing to confront Pyongyang on the other.

The unification ministry official downplayed the criticism.

“There were cases when North Korea maintained a critical tone toward the South and still accepted our offer for dialogue. I don’t think the newspapers officially represented Pyongyang’s view on resuming inter-Korean talks,” he said.

The official speculated that the Kim Jong-un regime may be playing a waiting game with the Moon administration to “gain bargaining power” in any possible dialogue.

Seoul suggested holding the military talks after Moon offered to suspend all hostile acts on the Military Demarcation Line during his Berlin speech before joining the G20 summit in Hamburg from July 7 to 8.

Moon said the suspension will make a breakthrough in inter-Korean ties, among the four “easy tasks” that should be carried out. The three others were holding an inter-Korean family reunion, North Korea’s participation in the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics and resuming inter-Korean dialogue.

If held, this will be the first dialogue between the military authorities of the two Koreas since Oct. 15, 2014.