The rival Koreas are discussing the possible relocation of North Korea’s long-range artillery systems away from the tense Korean border, South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yeon said yesterday as the countries forge ahead with steps to lower tensions and extend a recent detente.
North Korea has deployed an estimated 1,000 artillery pieces along the border, posing a significant threat to Seoul and the metropolitan area.
In a speech marking the 68th anniversary of the outbreak of the 1950-1953 Korean War, Lee said that “moving [North Korea’s] long-range artillery to the rear is under discussion,” as he explained what types of goodwill steps between the sides have been taken in the past few months.
Lee’s comments appear to be Seoul’s first official confirmation of media reports that South Korea demanded that the North reposition its forward-deployed artillery pieces during inter-Korean military talks this month.
The South Korean Ministry of Defense, which has denied the reports, said it had no immediate comment on Lee’s speech.
A 2016 South Korean defense white paper described the North’s long-range artillery as one of the country’s biggest threats, along with its nuclear and missile programs.
Seoul, a city of about 10 million people, is about 40km to 50km from the border.
South Korean media speculated that during the June 14 military talks, the North likely demanded that South Korea and the US withdraw their own artillery systems from the border as a reciprocal measure.
About 28,500 US soldiers are deployed in South Korea.
Also yesterday, military officers from the two Koreas met to discuss how to fully restore their military hotline communication channels, the ministry said.
The results of the talks were expected later yesterday.
The talks came a day after Seoul said it would “indefinitely suspend” two small-scale annual military drills with the US.
The drills involving marines from the allies were supposed to occur from next month to September, the ministry said in a statement.
South Korea is willing to take unspecified additional measures if North Korea is continuously engaged in “productive” negotiations, it said.
Last week, South Korea and the US announced the suspension of their larger, annual military exercises called the Ulchi Freedom Guardian, part of their efforts to increase the chances of successful nuclear diplomacy with North Korea.
Some experts have said the drills’ suspension could weaken the allies’ combined defense posture against North Korea.
An endangered baby pygmy hippopotamus that shot to social media stardom in Thailand has become a lucrative source of income for her home zoo, quadrupling its ticket sales, the institution said Thursday. Moo Deng, whose name in Thai means “bouncy pork,” has drawn tens of thousands of visitors to Khao Kheow Open Zoo this month. The two-month-old pygmy hippo went viral on TikTok and Instagram for her cheeky antics, inspiring merchandise, memes and even craft tutorials on how to make crocheted or cake-based Moo Dengs at home. A zoo spokesperson said that ticket sales from the start of September to Wednesday reached almost
‘BARBAROUS ACTS’: The captain of the fishing vessel said that people in checkered clothes beat them with iron bars and that he fell unconscious for about an hour Ten Vietnamese fishers were violently robbed in the South China Sea, state media reported yesterday, with an official saying the attackers came from Chinese-flagged vessels. The men were reportedly beaten with iron bars and robbed of thousands of dollars of fish and equipment on Sunday off the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), which Taiwan claims, as do Vietnam, China, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines. Vietnamese media did not identify the nationalities of the attackers, but Phung Ba Vuong, an official in central Quang Ngai province, told reporters: “They were Chinese, [the boats had] Chinese flags.” Four of the 10-man Vietnamese crew were rushed
Scientists yesterday announced a milestone in neurobiological research with the mapping of the entire brain of an adult fruit fly, a feat that might provide insight into the brains of other organisms and even people. The research detailed more than 50 million connections between more than 139,000 neurons — brain nerve cells — in the insect, a species whose scientific name is Drosophila melanogaster and is often used in neurobiological studies. The research sought to decipher how brains are wired and the signals underlying healthy brain functions. It could also pave the way for mapping the brains of other species. “You might
INSTABILITY: If Hezbollah do not respond to Israel’s killing of their leader then it must be assumed that they simply can not, an Middle Eastern analyst said Israel’s killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah leaves the group under huge pressure to deliver a resounding response to silence suspicions that the once seemingly invincible movement is a spent force, analysts said. Widely seen as the most powerful man in Lebanon before his death on Friday, Nasrallah was the face of Hezbollah and Israel’s arch-nemesis for more than 30 years. His group had gained an aura of invincibility for its part in forcing Israel to withdraw troops from southern Lebanon in 2000, waging a devastating 33-day-long war in 2006 against Israel and opening a “support front” in solidarity with Gaza since
RSS