N. Korea Balks at Planned S. Korea-U.S. Joint Drills
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
The U.S.-led United Nations Command (UNC) and North Korea held high-level military talks, Monday, the first of their kind in more than six years, the UNC said.
The talks, however, ended without tangible results, Seoul's Ministry of National Defense said.
``The two sides had positive discussions on easing border tension and measures to build mutual trust. But the two sides haven't set a date for the next meeting.''
The talks between Maj. Gen. Johnny A. Weida, deputy chief of staff for the UNC, and his North Korean counterpart at the truce village of Panmunjeom in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) dividing the two Koreas were aimed at discussing tension-reducing measures, the UNC said in a news release.
The meeting came as tension is growing on the Korean Peninsula over North Korea's alleged move to test-fire a long-range missile that can hit part of the United States. On Saturday, the communist state accused U.S. troops in South Korea of taking provocative acts in the buffer zone.
``North Korea requested this meeting to discuss tension reduction on the Korean Peninsula,'' said the UNC, which has taken charge of supervising the truce between both Koreas since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. ``The United Nations Command sees the North Korean request for these general officer-level talks to start again as positive.''
Talks at this level have not been held since September 2002.
These talks can be useful in building trust and preventing misunderstanding, as well as introducing transparency regarding the intentions of both sides, said the release.
North Korea observers said Pyongyang's proposal for talks with the U.S.-led command were part of its long-time tactic to isolate South Korea in discussing political and military affairs.
The North has often argued South Korea is not a party concerned with the ceasefire agreement on the peninsula, which was signed between the UNC, North Korea and China.
It was also expected to deliver its arguments against annual military drills of South Korean and U.S. forces and shift blame to the UNC and South Korea for potential conflicts near the Military Demarcation Line (MDL), and the Northern Limit Line in the West Sea, said the observers.
South Korea and the United States are scheduled to hold massive war games from March 9 to 20 in multiple locations throughout South Korea.
Currently, a four-star U.S. general assumes the commands of the UNC, U.S. Forces Korea and Combined Forces Command. About 28,000 U.S. troops are stationed here as a deterrent against North Korea.
In a statement carried by Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency, Saturday, North Korea claimed U.S. soldiers were stalking in groups in the DMZ, a four-kilometer-wide buffer zone dividing the peninsula.
It said 62 U.S. military personnel and 58 vehicles entered the zone and got as close as 100 meters to the MDL, the zone's central division, on as many as 66 occasions up to Feb. 20.
On Jan. 5 and Jan. 21, U.S. troops came as close as 30 meters to the MDL and took photographs of a North Korean guard post and monitored the movement of North Korean vehicles, it said.
The UNC and South Korea's Ministry of National Defense dismissed the warning, saying that U.S. soldiers were engaged in ``legitimate'' monitoring acts on the South side of the buffer zone as part of UNC operations.