North Korea yesterday demanded an end to South Korea's military exercises with the US, as high-level inter-Korean military talks got under way for the first time in nearly two years.
North Korea routinely criticizes the South's drills with US troops as Washington's rehearsals to attack the communist state, a charge Washington denies. The issue was a main reason that the North earlier cited in boycotting military talks with the South.
"They raised the issue in a principled manner in an opening speech," South Korean Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok told reporters in Seoul. "But I don't think it will act as an obstacle to the talks."
Two-star generals from the rival Koreas were leading this week's talks at the border truce village of Panmunjeom inside the Demilitarized Zone earlier yesterday. The meeting was the third of its kind and the first since June 2004.
The talks had originally been set to take place between one-star generals. But the North last week requested that the rank of the head delegates be upgraded to two-star officers -- making the talks the highest-ranking military contact between the North and South since the Korean War.
South Korean officials believe the North's proposal to raise the rank of officers involved bodes well for the talks as they see it as a sign of its willingness to negotiate.
"The hike in the rank of the chief delegates can be interpreted as meaning that the North must have felt the talks are more important," Lee said.
In their opening speech, South Korea proposed an agenda including seeking ways to prevent naval skirmishes along the western sea border, where the two sides have clashed before, and setting up joint fishing zones there, according to pool reports.
Other South Korean proposals include setting up a second defense ministers' meeting and working out an agreement to provide military guarantees for traffic on cross-border road and rail links.
The North agreed to discuss all the proposals Seoul said it had made, according to South Korean delegation spokesman Colonel Moon Sung-mook.
Fishing boats from the two Koreas jostle for position along the poorly marked maritime border during the May-June crab-catching season.
The Koreas also fought deadly naval gunbattles in the area in 1999 and 2002, sinking a South Korean warship in the last clash and killing six sailors. The North said it also suffered casualties, but the number wasn't known.
At the opening of the talks, the North's chief negotiator Lieutenant General Kim Young-chul called for unity and cooperation to fight "foreign powers," a reference commonly used by Pyongyang to refer to the US.
"Smaller countries should join hands under the spirit of nationalism and self-reliance," Kim said, according to a pool report.
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