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North and South Korea agree on military talks

North and South Korea announced Aug. 14 they would hold military talks as soon as possible, although no exact date has yet been specified.

In a statement released after three days of negotiations, the two sides also said they would arrange temporary reunions in September for families split for half a century and hold economic talks from Aug. 26 to 29 in Seoul.

South Korean delegation member Rhee Bong Jo said they would decide on a date for the military talks at the economic talks later this month.

The military talks are vital to the construction of the first railway and a parallel road to cut through the Demilitarized Zone, which has bisected the peninsula since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

Reconnecting the transport links was one of the key agreements made after a June 2000 summit between the leaders of the North and South, but the work has been delayed.

Pyongyang has continually refused to hold military talks on the transport links. A high priority of the negotiations would be measures to avoid accidental border clashes around the work.

South Korea has already finished work on the railway and highway up to the edge of the Demilitarized Zone.

But the North has done virtually nothing so far, and work to clear thousands of land mines inside the zone cannot start until a military accord is hammered out.

Shukan ST: Aug. 23, 2002

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