Two Koreas discuss reducing tension

SEOUL: North and South Korea discussed reducing tension but didn’t announce any detailed agreements after military talks on Tuesday, while the United States detected renewed activity at a North Korean missile factory, casting more suspicion over the North’s intentions.

The meeting, the second since June and held in the border village of Panmunjom, was designed to follow on from an inter-Korean summit in April at which leaders of the two Koreas agreed to defuse tension and halt “all hostile acts”.

North Korea’s Kim Jong Un also vowed during his separate summit with US President Donald Trump in Singapore in June to work toward denuclearisation, but there has been no concrete agreement to accomplish that goal. The North had pursued its nuclear and missile programmes in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions and increasingly severe sanctions. Generals from the two Koreas exchanged views on a possible cut in firearms and personnel to “demilitarise” the heavily fortified demilitarised zone, as well as joint excavation within the area of the remains of soldiers killed in the 1950-53 Korean War. They also discussed ways to turn the skirmish-prone West Sea by ceasing firing exercises and withdrawing artillery along the shore, according to South Korea’s defence ministry.

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