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| Koreas Agree on Deal to Defuse Tensions | Koreas Agree on Deal to Defuse Tensions |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| SEOUL, South Korea — In a deal to defuse tensions on the divided Korean Peninsula that were rapidly escalating toward armed conflict, South Korea agreed early on Tuesday to switch off its propaganda loudspeakers on the border, while North Korea agreed to stand down from its “semi-war state,” a high level of military alert. | |
| North Korea also expressed “regrets” for the maiming of two soldiers from the South in land-mine explosions, Kim Kwan-jin, the chief national security adviser to President Park Geun-hye of South Korea, said during a news conference. | North Korea also expressed “regrets” for the maiming of two soldiers from the South in land-mine explosions, Kim Kwan-jin, the chief national security adviser to President Park Geun-hye of South Korea, said during a news conference. |
| Mr. Kim also said that the two Koreas agreed to hold reunions of aging Koreans who became separated from relatives during the 1950-53 Korean War. Such reunions, last held in February 2014, are seen as a barometer of thawing relations. | Mr. Kim also said that the two Koreas agreed to hold reunions of aging Koreans who became separated from relatives during the 1950-53 Korean War. Such reunions, last held in February 2014, are seen as a barometer of thawing relations. |
| “South and North Korea agreed to hold a government meeting in Seoul or Pyongyang at an early date so that they can have dialogue and negotiations on various issues to improve relations,” Mr. Kim said, reading a joint statement that the two countries signed at the border village of Panmunjom. The North Korean government also announced the agreement on Tuesday. | |
| The agreement emerged from marathon talks between Mr. Kim and Vice Marshal Hwang Pyong-so, the second most powerful military officer in the North after the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un. The two sides haggled for three days at Panmunjom while the rival military forces stood ready for a possible armed clash if the talks broke down. | |
| North-South relations, which were already testy, deteriorated sharply after two South Korean border guards were seriously wounded on Aug. 4 by land mines that the South said were planted by the North. In retaliation, South Korea resumed blaring propaganda into the North from batteries of loudspeakers along the border, reviving a tactic it had suspended 11 years ago. | |
| The North, which had warned that it would consider use of the loudspeakers an “act of war,” said that if the South did not shut the speakers off by 5 p.m. Saturday, it would take “strong military action,” including attacking the loudspeakers. And an exchange of artillery fire on Thursday raised tensions further. | |
| The two sides agreed to open talks to defuse the situation a few hours before the deadline on Saturday. | |
| The land-mine episode loomed large in the dispute. Ms. Park insisted on Monday that the South would not turn loudspeakers off unless the North apologized, while the North denied any responsibility. | |
| As the Panmunjom talks stalled, North Korea deployed more artillery pieces, submarines and other forces along the border in an apparent move to increase its leverage. | |
| The negotiators apparently broke their impasse with a compromise in which North Korea expressed its “regrets” for the mine explosions without explicitly acknowledging responsibility for them. | |
| In return for allowing that compromise, South Korea won a North Korean agreement to hold a new round of reunions of separated families in time for Chuseok, the annual harvest holiday, which begins on Sept. 27. The holiday is traditionally a time for family gatherings in Korea, akin to Thanksgiving in the United States. | |
| Ms. Park has repeatedly called for more reunions of relatives who lost contact during the Korean War six decades ago and have not seen one another since then. | |
| Over the decades, the two governments have arranged a series of reunions, but the program has proceeded only fitfully, subject to the political mood on the divided peninsula. About 70,000 South Koreans, most of them 80 or older, remain on a government waiting list, hoping for a chance before they die to meet children or siblings they left in the North. | |
| Eighty-three South Koreans and 88 North Koreans had emotional reunions with relatives at a North Korean mountain resort last February, but there have been none since then. |