South Korea proposes military talks with North Korea
SOUTH-KOREA - South Korea’s new government is making overtures to the North, proposing military talks at the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that separates the two rivals. In an attempt to defuse rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula, South Korea’s Defense Ministry has proposed talks between representatives of the two countries’ militaries on July 21 at Tongil-gak on the North Korean side of Panmunjom, the so-called truce village in the DMZ. The talks at Panmunjon would be aimed at ending “hostile acts” between the two, which “escalate military tension,” according to a statement from South Korean Deputy Defense Minister, Seo Joo-seok. Seo also said that earlier this month the government had proposed a cessation of “all hostile acts along the Military Demarcation Line,” ahead of the 64th anniversary on July 27 of the truce which effectively ended the Korean War in 1953. Pyongyang put the world on notice when it conducted its first successful test of the Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on July 4. At the time it claimed the missile could “reach anywhere in the world,” though based on a standard trajectory analysts say the long-range weapon could potentially reach Alaska. But new South Korean President Moon Jaein, who campaigned on a more diplomatic approach to the North Korean issue, maintains he’s open to talks with North Korea under the right circumstances.
Just days after the Hwasong launch, Moon declared in a speech delivered in Berlin that he’d be willing to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “at any time, at any place.” His defense of diplomacy echoes former President Roh Moo-hyun’s “sunshine policy” towards Pyongyang, and his predecessor Kim Daejung’s “Berlin Doctrine,” outlined in the German capital 17 years ago. In the speech, ahead of the G20 meeting in Hamburg, Moon described North Korea’s missile launch as “disappointing” and “reckless.” (CNN.COM)