Report: Seoul to push for enhanced liaison at DMZ

SEOUL: South Korean President Moon Jae-in plans to propose enhancing liaison functions of the two Koreas at the border village of Panmunjom in the upcoming summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, a South Korean newspaper reported yesterday.

Seoul apparently believes an enhanced liaison presence would help the leaders engage in dialogue regularly amid a recent thaw in relations between the two countries, which remain technically at war as the 1950-1953 Korean War ended in a ceasefire rather than a peace treaty.

The Hankyoreh newspaper reported on the envisioned proposal, citing a government source.

The two Koreas already have liaison offices at Panmunjom, but communication between the offices is limited to exchanges through a direct phone line.

Yonhap News Agency reported the same day that establishing a joint liaison office will likely be among the agenda items to be discussed during the inter-Korea summit tomorrow.

Officials from both countries are expected to stay in the office full time, rather than going there when something happens, according to the report. The two Koreas had a similar system at the joint industrial zone in North Korea’s border city Kaesong, although the zone is currently not operating.

South Korea is ramping up preparations for the first inter-Korea summit in over 10 years, expected to be followed by an unprecedented meeting between US and North Korean leaders. North Korea’s denuclearisation will be the key topic at the two summits.

The Moon-Kim summit will be held at a South Korean building called the Peace House on the southern side of Panmunjom in the Demilitarised Zone, making Mr Kim the first North Korean leader to cross the Military Demarcation Line, which separates the two Koreas.

Also yesterday, the South Korean presidential office unveiled to some media the interior of the Peace House. The three-storey building, built in 1989 as a venue for inter-Korea meetings, recently underwent renovation ahead of the summit.

The shape of the table in the main meeting room on the second floor has been changed from square to oval. The chairs Mr Moon and Mr Kim will sit on feature an image of the Korean Peninsula as well as of a pair of South Korean-controlled islets claimed by Japan.

Like its southern neighbour, North Korea also rejects Japan’s claim to the rocky islets.

Meanwhile, the Japanese government has lodged a protest with South Korea over a mango mousse dessert to be served at the inter-Korean summit, saying its chocolate decoration includes a map of the Korean Peninsula showing the Japanese-claimed islets.

Kenji Kanasugi, director general of the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, conveyed the protest to a senior official of the South Korean Embassy in Tokyo on Tuesday and urged Seoul not to serve the dessert with such a design, according to a Japanese government source.