Seoul proposes border talks with North

RISKY: Leaving the demarcation line dispute unresolved would increase chances of accidental clashes, as troops act on their own understanding of the line, an official said

South Korea yesterday proposed military talks with North Korea to resolve disagreements about where their border lies and prevent accidental clashes in frontline areas, seeking to ease tensions after recent landmine blasts injured three South Korean soldiers.

It is unclear whether North Korea will agree to talks. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has taken a hard line toward Seoul and has suspended virtually all dialogue and cooperation with the South over the past few years. Meanwhile, North Korea has been adding mines, barbed wire fences, tactical roads, anti-tank walls and other fortifications to what is already one of the world’s most heavily armed borders.

South Korea’s military has said North Korean soldiers crossed the border’s military demarcation line 50 times this year during fortification work, and that it responded with warning shots and broadcasts.

Seoul has shown greater urgency to ease tensions after the Sept. 21 mine blasts at the border, which the South’s military concluded were caused by North Korean mines planted south of the military demarcation line.

“Our Ministry of National Defense officially proposes to North Korean authorities that South-North military talks be held to mutually confirm the exact location of the ground military demarcation line between the South and the North, discuss the restoration of military communication lines, and discuss measures to prevent accidental clashes in border areas,” South Korean Deputy Minister for Defense Policy Kim Hong-Cheol said, adding that Seoul was also open to three-way talks involving the UN Command.

The proposal came days after Kim Jong-un’s powerful sister visited front-line areas where North Korean troops are reinforcing the border. During her visit, she renewed a threat to retaliate against any South Korean provocation aimed at the fortification work.

The North planned to activate border loudspeakers for anti-Seoul propaganda broadcasts and has placed unspecified “new counter means” on alert along the border, she said.

She blamed the South for firing warning shots and broadcasting warnings toward North Korean soldiers fortifying the border under what she called a false pretext that they were crossing the demarcation line.

South Korean officials have said North Korea’s recent border activities have highlighted the Koreas’ disagreement over exactly where the military demarcation line lies. The line was drawn up under the 1953 armistice that stopped the fighting of the Korean War, and some decades-old boundary markers have been lost over time.

Kim said leaving the dispute over the military demarcation line unresolved would increase the risk of accidental clashes, because troops from both sides act on their own understanding of the line. “

The recent increase in North Korean activities along the military demarcation line, as well as our warning broadcasts and warning shots, is also related to this situation,” he said.

North Korean army marshal Pak Jong Chon denied that North Korean soldiers were breaching the border during fortification work, saying “our army knows where our borderline is better than any others.”

He accused the South of making “deliberate, premeditated and absurd” claims to shift blame over the rising tensions and threatened an “overwhelming response” to South Korean provocations.