By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
South Korea has called on China to honor the agreement to establish hotlines between their navies and air forces, a government official said Monday.
The establishment of 24-hour telephone hotlines was agreed upon at talks between the defense chiefs of the two countries last April in Beijing as part of efforts to build confidence between the two countries.
But the Chinese government has not given a final approval to the plan, missing August and December deadlines, the official said.
A military attache at the South Korean Embassy in Beijing recently met Chinese officials to call for opening the hotlines at an early date, he added.
Under the agreement, a naval hotline is to link the South Korean Navy's 2nd Fleet in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, to China's northern naval fleet command in Qingdao, while an air force hotline is to connect the 2nd Master Control Reporting Center in Daegu, some 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul, with an air command in Jinan, Shandong Province.
The naval hotline is aimed at reducing tension in the West Sea, or Yellow Sea, where disputes between the two countries have occasionally arisen over illegal fishing activities by Chinese fishermen.
The air force hotline is expected to help with the exchange of information on the infiltration of any unidentified aircraft over the Korean Peninsula.