Seoul proposes military talks with Pyongyang
- by Israel Caldwell
- in Sports
- — Jul 18, 2017
But Moon's overture, the first formal offer of talks since his inauguration in May, indicates he wants to use dialogue to defuse the worldwide standoff over North Korea's weapons programs, despite having condemned the North's first intercontinental ballistic missile test on July 4 and vowed a firm response.
The South's defence ministry proposed a meeting on Friday at the border truce village of Panmunjom, while the Red Cross offered to hold talks on 1 August at the same venue.
Seoul also offered a separate meeting between the two sides' Red Cross officials to arrange a fresh round of reunions for families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War on the Chuseok holiday on October 4, which is also the 10th anniversary of an inter-Korean peace declaration.
South Korea - the despised neighbour of the hermit state - made a formal request for military talks between the two countries. "They can signal to the other side what they want, what problems or issues they have with the other side", said Daniel Pinkston, a North Korea analyst with Troy University in Seoul.
During that period, two liberal South Korean presidents went to Pyongyang and held landmark summit talks with then-leader Kim Jong Il, the father of current North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un. The last government-level meetings were held in December, 2015. But he still has not backed off from his outreach to North Korea, arguing during a recent speech that both Koreas must stop hostile activities along the border and resume family reunions.
But Pyongyang has staged a series of missile launches in violation of United Nations resolutions, most recently on 4 July when it test-fired its first ICBM, a move which triggered global alarm and a push by the U.S. president, Donald Trump, to impose harsher United Nations sanctions on the country.
"Some tough words on the DPRK, on North Korea".
The North's missile launch has stoked security worries that the country could eventually ideal a reliable nuclear missile capable of reaching anywhere in the US.
Myanmar is a key country of interest, because it is unclear whether the country's military still purchases weapons from North Korea.
In its conclusions on North Korea adopted earlier on Monday at Foreign Affairs Council, the Council of the European Union reaffirmed the policy of combining pressure with sanctions and other measures while keeping communication and dialogue channels open in order to promote North Korea's full compliance with UN Security Council resolutions.
The two Koreas restarted Cold War-era psychological warfare after the North's fourth nuclear test in January 2016.
Or, even before the sides sit down across the table, they could spend days and weeks engaged in a heated war of nerves over the rank of each other's chief negotiator and protocol, which have in the past resulted in the breakdown of talks.
Outside experts believe the South Korean broadcasts and leaflets sting in Pyongyang more because the authoritarian country worries that the broadcasts will demoralize front-line troops and residents and eventually weaken the grip of absolute leader Kim Jong Un.
"We're going to give these countries and these banks and companies a choice - continue to do business in the USA dollar or work with North Korea", Ruggiero said, regarding what the message should be to countries in Southeast Asia and elsewhere.
