Two Koreas in talks for third day

The two Koreas engaged in high-level talk for the third day Monday without much progress in their attempts to defuse tension on the Korean Peninsula.

Seoul’s Nation Security Office chief Kim Kwan-jin and Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo, and Pyongyang’s Hwang Pyong-so, director of the general political department of the Korean People’s Army, and Kim Yang-gon, director of the United Front Department in charge of cross-border affairs resumed the talks Sunday 3: 30 p.m.

The decision to hold the inter-Korean dialogue was reached just hours before the North’s deadline that the South stop the loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts or that it will take “strong military action.” The two high-level officials from both sides first met on Saturday in the talks that lasted more than 10 hours.

The South is reportedly demanding an apology while the North is requesting that the South stop the loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts.

As the two sides keep the dialogue running, the respective militaries did not ease on military alert. The South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff has notched up their watchcon alert to level 2 from 3 after consulting with the ROK-US Combined Forces Command. On Monday, Seoul’s military officials said that North Korea has deployed amphibious landing crafts carrying special forces to the frontline.