Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
N Korea agrees to talks, South suspends drills
US concurs in halt of military tests
NORTH Korea agreed yesterday to hold talks with the South next week, the first in more than two years, hours after the US and South Korea delayed a military exercise amid a standoff over the North’s nuclear and missile programmes.
South Korea said the North had sent its consent for the talks to be held on Tuesday. The last time the two Koreas engaged in official talks was in December 2015.
The meeting will take place at the border truce village of Panmunjom where officials from both sides are expected to discuss the Winter Olympics, to be held in the South next month, and other inter-Korean relations, South Korean Unification Ministry spokesperson Baik Tae-hyun said.
The North asked for further negotiations about the meeting to be carried out via documented exchanges, he said.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un opened the way for talks in a New Year’s Day speech in which he called for reduced tensions and flagged the North’s possible participation in the Olympics.
But Kim remained steadfast on the issue of nuclear weapons, saying the North would mass produce nuclear missiles for operational deployment and again warned he would launch a nuclear strike if his country was threatened.
US President Donald Trump and his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in announced on Thursday that annual largescale military drills would now take place after the Olympics.
The North sees these drills as preparations for invasion and just cause for its weapons programmes that it conducts in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions. South Korea and the US are technically still at war with North Korea after the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a truce, not a peace treaty.
Trump had earlier called the proposed inter- Korean talks a “good thing” and that he would send a high-level delegation, including members of his family, to the Olympics, according to South Korea’s presidential office.
In a tweet, Trump, who hurled fresh insults at the North Korean leader this week, took credit for any dialogue that takes place.
“Does anybody really believe that talks and dialogue would be going on between North and South Korea right now if I wasn’t firm, strong and willing to commit our total ‘ might’ against the North,” Trump tweeted.
North Korea regularly threatens to destroy the US and its two key Asia allies, Japan and South Korea.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang welcomed North and South Korea “taking positive steps to improve ties”, and postponement of military exercises was “without doubt a good thing”.
Japanese Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera said: “What is important is to maintain a firm defence posture. North Korea goes through phases of apparent dialogue and provocation but is continuing its nuclear and missile development. We have no intention of weakening our warning and surveillance.” – Reuters