Friday, January 21, 2011

Seoul accepts military talks to "high" with Pyongyang

South Korea agreed on Thursday 20 January, the proposal for North Korea to begin military talks "at a high level" to discuss "military matters", said a spokesman for the Department of Unification of South Korea. After several months of tensions between the two neighbors of the peninsula, the North Korean minister Kim Yong-chun was sent earlier in the day this proposal to his South Korean counterpart Kim Kwan-jin, according to a spokesman for the Department defense of South Korea.

The Unification Ministry, responsible for relations between the two neighbors agreed to hold preparatory meetings for these high-level discussions. He also proposed to hold separate talks between senior government officials on nuclear disarmament. The willingness of North Korea to engage in nuclear disarmament is one of two conditions laid down in Seoul prior to these talks.

South Korea has also imposed a condition for the resumption of bilateral negotiations with Pyongyang recognition of its responsibility in two serious incidents which have significantly strained relations between South and North in 2010: In March, forty-six sailors died in the sinking of their Commander, awarded by an international survey in Pyongyang, which denies, in late November and the North bombed a South Korean island, killing four people.

Since the end of December, Pyongyang has changed its tone and multiplies the prompts in the dialogue with Seoul. It is however the first time that the North offers military talks to "high". So far, South Korea had rejected invitations from Pyongyang, saying they were not sincere. To be taken seriously, Pyongyang must "take responsibility" for its acts of provocation past and confirm its commitment to nuclear disarmament, Seoul repeated.
Posted by Manlio Gandolfi at 3:08 AM

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