This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/23/world/asia/south-korea-announces-talks-with-north-to-defuse-border-tensions.html
The article has changed 6 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| South Korea Announces Talks With North to Defuse Border Tensions | South Korea Announces Talks With North to Defuse Border Tensions |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| SEOUL, South Korea — South and North Korea agreed to hold a high-level meeting on their border Saturday, South Korean officials said, apparently bringing at least a temporary halt to a tense standoff that has prevailed since the countries exchanged artillery fire two days ago. | SEOUL, South Korea — South and North Korea agreed to hold a high-level meeting on their border Saturday, South Korean officials said, apparently bringing at least a temporary halt to a tense standoff that has prevailed since the countries exchanged artillery fire two days ago. |
| The meeting will take place at the border village of Panmunjom, said Kim Kyou-hyun, a senior aide to President Park Geun-hye of South Korea. Mr. Kim said the meeting would include top policy makers from both sides: Kim Kwan-jin, President Park’s senior national security adviser, and Vice Marshal Hwang Pyong-so, North Korea’s most powerful military officer after Kim Jong-un, the country’s supreme leader, who holds the rank of marshal. | The meeting will take place at the border village of Panmunjom, said Kim Kyou-hyun, a senior aide to President Park Geun-hye of South Korea. Mr. Kim said the meeting would include top policy makers from both sides: Kim Kwan-jin, President Park’s senior national security adviser, and Vice Marshal Hwang Pyong-so, North Korea’s most powerful military officer after Kim Jong-un, the country’s supreme leader, who holds the rank of marshal. |
| North Korea confirmed in a brief statement that the two sides had agreed to meet. | |
| The announcement came just hours before a deadline of 5 p.m. that Pyongyang had given South Korea to stop broadcasting propaganda messages from loudspeakers placed along the countries’ heavily militarized border. The North had threatened “strong military action” unless the broadcasts stopped. | |
| The meeting at the border will be held at 6 p.m., said Kim Kyou-hyun, the presidential aide. He said that Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo of South Korea and Kim Yang-gon, a senior North Korean Workers’ Party secretary in charge of relations with the South, would also attend the meeting. | The meeting at the border will be held at 6 p.m., said Kim Kyou-hyun, the presidential aide. He said that Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo of South Korea and Kim Yang-gon, a senior North Korean Workers’ Party secretary in charge of relations with the South, would also attend the meeting. |
| On Thursday, the two Koreas exchanged fire across their land border. No casualties were reported, but it was their most serious armed clash in five years. | On Thursday, the two Koreas exchanged fire across their land border. No casualties were reported, but it was their most serious armed clash in five years. |
| South Korean officials said they believed the North had begun the firing as a warning to stop the loudspeaker broadcasts. The broadcasts, a propaganda tactic dating from the Cold War, were resumed by the South this month after 11 years, in response to the maiming of two South Korean border guards by land mines that the South accused the North of planting. | South Korean officials said they believed the North had begun the firing as a warning to stop the loudspeaker broadcasts. The broadcasts, a propaganda tactic dating from the Cold War, were resumed by the South this month after 11 years, in response to the maiming of two South Korean border guards by land mines that the South accused the North of planting. |
| Kim Kyou-hyun, the South Korean presidential aide, said that discussions about meeting at Panmunjom had begun Friday afternoon, when Kim Yang-gon, the North Korean official, suggested it in a telegram. Discussions ensued over who would attend, and the two sides reached a final agreement to meet only on Saturday afternoon, Kim Kyou-hyun said. | |
| In Yeoncheon, the South Korean county near the border where the two sides exchanged fire Thursday, nearly 3,800 people moved into underground shelters on Saturday. Officials said the residents were staying in the shelters despite the announcement of the meeting at the border. | |
| Also Saturday, four American F-16 jets and four South Korean F-15K jets flew together for an hour across South Korean territory, simulating “bombing attacks on key enemy targets and maneuvers to repel enemy jets,” a South Korean Defense Ministry official said under the customary condition of anonymity. | |
| The United States and South Korean militaries are conducting long-scheduled joint training exercises, but the official said the flight Saturday was separate from those drills and was intended as a show of force to the North. | |
| North Korea has been under pressure from the United States, the United Nations and even its traditional ally China to refrain from raising tensions further. China urged both Koreas on Friday to “stay calm and use restraint,” but North Korea issued a defiant statement hours later saying that “no one’s talk about self-restraint is helpful to putting the situation under control.” |