North Korea meets South Korea for talks – but neither side is willing to back down
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Version 0 of 1. North Korea sent its highest-ranking general to conduct top-level talks with the South on Saturday, as both sides initially appeared eager to prevent bloodshed days after they traded artillery shells near the demilitarised zone. Hwang Pyong-so, political director of the North Korean armed forces, was sent to talk with Kim Kwan-jin, the national security adviser to South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye, at the “truce” village of Panmunjom, an abandoned settlement on the de facto border between North and South Korea. General Hwang arrived in formal military uniform, sparkling with medals, while Mr Kim wore a dark suit. With Hwang was Kim Yong-gon, the ranking North Korean in charge of inter-Korean affairs, who faced the Unification Minister of South Korea, Hong Yong-pyo. As the talks dragged into the night, however, fears grew that there were insurmountable obstacles still remaining to a compromise that would save face for both sides. The meeting was set up after a series of incidents raised concerns that the conflict could spiral out of control. Starting with a landmine attack, allegedly by the North, that maimed two South Korean soldiers and the South’s resumption of anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts in response, the North then began its own propaganda broadcasts and fired at the South’s loudspeakers, prompting retaliatory fire two days ago. The talks came hours after a deadline set by North Korea for the South to stop the broadcasts or face attack. North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, warned earlier of a “semi-state of war”. The North Korean embassy in London said in a statement that the “psychological warfare” by the “puppet military gangsters” of the South was an “open act of war”. North Korean forces, ordered to be “battle ready”, moved heavy artillery close to their side of the demilitarised zone between the two Koreas, while South Korean troops, also on alert, were under orders to “retaliate” against any “provocation” as they did last Thursday. The problem, said Mr Kim, is that North Korea is demanding immediate cessation of broadcasts from the tiers of loudspeakers that have been set up by South Korea just below the demilitarised zone. South Korea, in turn, is asking the North to apologise for severe wounds inflicted on two South Korean army sergeants when they stepped on a mine on the southern side of the demilitarised zone. South Korea says the mine, of old Soviet design, had been set by North Korea. Mr Kim said he believed the crisis was a result of “the instability of the Kim Jong-un regime”. The North Korean leader, he said, “must be very insecure”, as has been seen in the executions of senior officials such as General Hyon Yong-chol recently. “If nothing is agreed, we have to continue the broadcasting,” he said. “We are tired of speaking of the danger of escalation.” |