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DPRK, S.Korean Defense Ministers to Hold First-ever Talks
Seoul and Pyongyang Sunday agreed to hold their first defense ministers' meeting in Cheju Island, South Korea, on September 25-26, said the South Korean Defense Ministry.
South Korean Defense Minister Cho Song-tae and his Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) counterpart Kim Il Chol will each head a 20-member delegation to attend the two-day meeting, said a Defense Ministry spokesman.
Sunday morning, Kim Il Chol, who is also vice chairman of the DPRK National Defense Commission, delivered a letter of agreement on the meeting to Cho through the Military Armistice Commission of the United Nations Command based in the truce village of Panmumjom.
In the letter, Kim said Pyongyang decided to hold the meeting in South Korea, instead of Hong Kong, to sincerely implement the South-North Joint Declaration reached by South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and DPRK leader Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang on June 15.
At the meeting, Pyongyang is expected to raise the military issues on the reconnection of the railway between Seoul and DPRK's Sinuiju city, and the establishment of a cross-border road between DPRK's Kaesong city and South Korea's Munsan city. Seoul is expected to ask for establishment of a military hotline between the two sides and measures for building mutual confidence.
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