Seoul proposes preliminary S-N military talks Feb. 11

By Lee Tae-hoon

South Korea proposed Wednesday holding a working-level military meeting with North Korea next month to set the agenda for possible ministerial-level talks that Pyongyang suggested on Jan. 20.

The Ministry of National Defense said Seoul offered the preliminary talks at the truce village of Panmunjeom on Feb. 11.

The response came a week after the communist North sought inter-Korean dialogue to exchange views on the sinking of the frigate Cheonan and artillery attacks on Yeonpyeong Island, and to alleviate military tensions on the peninsula.

The ministry, however, pointed out that it would hold higher-level talks on the condition that Pyongyang admits its responsibility in the working-level talks for the torpedoing of the warship and the deadly shelling of Yeonpyeong last year.

“Our government’s stance is firm that Pyongyang must sincerely offer an apology for the attacks on the Cheonan and Yeonpyeong, take responsible measures and promise not to make further provocations,” Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said.

“If North Korea refuses to do so, the ministerial-level talks won’t be held.”

An international probe concluded last year that the South Korean frigate was torpedoed by a North Korean submarine near the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the de facto sea border, last March. The tragic incident took the lives of 46 sailors onboard.

In late November, the Stalinist North also unleashed a surprise artillery barrage on Yeonpyeong Island near the NLL in the West Sea, killing four people, including two civilians.

Pyongyang has claimed that its shelling of Yeonpyeong was legitimate because Seoul provoked it by holding a live-fire drill near the island with some shells allegedly falling in the North’s territorial waters.

The North has also flatly denied its responsibility for the sinking of the warship.

The NLL has been the scene of several bloody conflicts in recent years as Pyongyang does not respect it, claiming that the sea border was drawn unilaterally by the U.S.-led United Nations Command at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

Seoul and Pyongyang held their last working-level military talks at Panmunjom on Sept. 30, 2010.

No ministerial-level talks have been held between the two Koreas since the Lee Myung-bak administration took office in February 2008.

The proposal for high-level defense talks came on the heels of the U.S.-Chinese summit in Washington last week.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Unification proposed separate high-level dialogue with the North on the subject of denuclearization.

“Military talks are military talks,” spokesman Chun Hae-sung said. “It must be stated once again that the North should also show a positive response to governmental talks on denuclearization.”