Two Koreas Prepare Defense Ministers' MeetingTop military officers from South and North Korea met on Wednesday to lay the groundwork for unprecedented talks between their defense ministers scheduled for next week.A brigadier general from South Korea and a colonel from the North began talks at 0100 GMT in a building on the North's side of Panmunjom, the only meeting place along their heavily armed border. North Korea asked for the talks in Panmunjom to prepare for the meeting on Monday and Tuesday between South Korean Defense Minister Cho Seong-tae and North Korean People's Armed Forces Minister Kim Il-chol in Cheju, a South Korean resort island. The two Koreas remain technically at war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armed truce that has never been replaced by a formal peace pact. Efforts to improve their antagonistic relations have gathered considerable momentum since June, when South Korean President Kim Dae-jung flew to Pyongyang for a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. The two Koreas have held two rounds of cabinet-level talks that have made headway on economic ties, including the rebuilding of road and rail links across their heavily fortified border. But South Korea has urged North Korea to include thorny military issues in the talks because projects such as reconnecting the road and railway will require coordination between their armed forces to clear landmines. A third round of ministerial talks will be held in Cheju on September 27-30. The two sides last month organized emotional reunions of families separated during the traumatic events surrounding the Korean War in which 100 people from each side were allowed to visit relatives on the other side of the closed border. Plans for more reunions are also expected to top the agenda at talks between Red Cross officials from the two Koreas at North Korea's Mount Kumgang resort on Wednesday. |
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