The Hindu : N. Korea agrees to ease tension

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 07, 2002

International

International

N. Korea agrees to ease tension

North Korean Army delegates with the U.N. Command officials at a village on the border between the two Koreas on Tuesday. — AP

PANMUNJOM (South Korea) Aug. 6. North Korea's military agreed today to discuss confidence-building measures and ways to prevent clashes like the recent deadly North-South sea battle, a senior U.S. military official said.

Generals from North Korea and their counterparts from the U.S.-led United Nations Command (UNC) met for nearly two hours at the Panmunjom truce village on the North-South border, the first high-level meeting since November 2000. The talks took place against a backdrop of diplomatic overtures by the isolated and impoverished communist state to South Korea and to its main allies, the United States and Japan.

U.S. Major General James Soligan said discussions of the deadly North-South naval clash on the Yellow Sea were "very positive" with a "tone of co-operation and common interest in reducing tensions and preventing miscalculations".

The UNC officers informed the North about South Korea's plans to salvage a South Korean patrol boat that was attacked and sunk by North Korean vessels on June 29, killing four sailors and leaving one missing and presumed dead, Maj. Gen. Soligan told reporters. He said the two sides discussed "preventative measures such as establishing new communication procedures and conducting regular staff-officer level meetings to reduce tensions and prevent further clashes." North Korea and the U.N. side would hold future talks on details of the confidence-building measures, the U.N. Command in Seoul said in a statement.

Maj. Gen. Soligan said the (North) Korean People's Army (KPA) delegation, headed by Colonel General Ri Chan-bok, made several proposals. But he declined to describe the proposals or discuss the KPA reaction to the allies' statements on the naval clash, which the UNC described as a violation of the 1953 Armistice Agreement signed after the three-year Korean War.

The UNC dates back to the Korean War, when the United Nations authorised a multinational military force to aid South Korea after it was invaded by Soviet-backed North Korea in June 1950. The United States led and provided the bulk of UNC troops. The two Koreas remain technically at war, because the 1953 armistice has never been replaced by a peace treaty. The armed truce was signed by China and North Korea on the communist side and by the UNC, but South Korea refused to sign it. — Reuters

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