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Two Koreas Agree to Reduce Military Tension
Defence ministers from North and South Korea agreed on Monday to work towards building links and easing military tension on the divided peninsula.
The talks between South Korea's Defence Minister Cho Seong-tae and the North's Kim Il-chol, were the first between defence chiefs of the two Korea's in half a century.
Their two-day meeting on the South Korean island of Cheju followed a summit in Pyongyang in June between South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and the North's leader, Kim Jong-il.
The two defence ministers agreed to promote relations in the spirit of the June landmark summit, officials said.
"The two sides shared the view in principle they will try to militarily ensure the actual implementation of the historic June declaration," Seoul's defence ministry spokesman, Yoon Il-young, told reporters after the talks.
"Besides the military cooperation in relinking a railway and road across the border, the two sides agreed to continue to discuss other confidence-building measures," he said.
The spokesman said any agreements would be announced in a joint communique at the end of the talks on Tuesday.
Despite the rapidly warming ties between the two old enemies, little progress has so far been made in reducing military tension between them.
The talks come as North Korea faces another tough winter with more severe food shortages looming.
South Korea's President Kim said on Sunday North Korea, hard hit by recent droughts and typhoons, could face even worse food shortages next year and urged Japan to send more food aid.
North Korean officials said last week they wanted to limit discussion to military cooperation in the construction of rail and road links across the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas.
The road and rail project is one of several initiatives that followed June's summit and is the most concrete sign yet of a thaw in relations between the two Koreas, who remain technically at war under a 1953 armed truce.
South Korea has budgeted 500 billion won ($440 million) for the project and President Kim last week inaugurated work on the southern side. Pyongyang has not said when it will begin work on its side. The two Koreas have no transport links.
Yoon said the South's Cho proposed establishing a committee to deal with military cooperation for the road and rail project, scheduled to be completed next September, including cooperation on the removal of landmines.
An estimated one million landmines are planted in the four-km (2.5 mile) wide DMZ.
Other issues the southern side proposed at the talks included setting up a military hotline, notification of large troop movements and observation of major military exercises.
A senior South Korean foreign ministry official said the South also proposed holding a second defence ministers' meeting in Pyongyang in November. Yoon said a decision on regular talks had not been reached.
Speaking to US Defence Secretary William Cohen and top military officials at an annual security meeting last week, Cho said the Cheju talks were highly significant.
He said despite the June summit there had been little progress in easing military tension and the North remained a threat.
"Despite the changes, there has been little real progress in dismantling military tensions between the two Koreas, as North Korea's military threat remains the same," Cho said.
Cohen said last week in Tokyo that North Korea has strengthened its military readiness in the past year and must reverse that trend if it hopes to win more economic support from South Korea, Japan and the United States.
"Its forces today are more prepared than they were a year ago... They are doing more training today than they did last year. They have more forward-deployed artillery pieces than ever before," Cohen said.
South Korean President Kim said he wants the United States to keep its 37,000 troops in the South despite signs of improving North-South ties. (Source: chinadaily.com.cn)
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