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North Korea Seeks Talks With South North and South Korea Agree to Hold Border Talks
(about 5 hours later)
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea on Friday proposed border talks with South Korea next week, following up on an earlier agreement for such dialogue to discuss easing tensions and improving ties on the divided Korean Peninsula. SEOUL, South Korea — North and South Korea agreed on Friday to hold border talks next week, following up on an earlier agreement for such dialogue to discuss easing tensions and improving ties on the divided Korean Peninsula.
The two Koreas had agreed to resume senior-level government dialogue as part of a deal in August to end an armed standoff. The South Korean Unification Ministry said on Friday that it had accepted a proposal from the North to hold the talks next Thursday on the northern side of Panmunjom, a village straddling the border. It said the talks would be led by working-level negotiators to prepare for a full-fledged dialogue that both countries had agreed in August to hold in Seoul or Pyongyang.
As part of that agreement, they also held reunions last month allowing hundreds of aging Koreans separated during the 1950-53 Korean War to meet relatives for the first time in more than six decades. The two Koreas had agreed to resume senior-level government dialogue as part of the deal in August to end an armed standoff. As part of that agreement, they also held reunions last month that allowed hundreds of aging Koreans separated during the Korean War to meet relatives for the first time in more than six decades.
South Korea in recent weeks has repeatedly proposed to start the agreed-upon government talks, but the North had not responded until Friday, when it said it wanted the talks to be held next Thursday. In recent weeks, South Korea has repeatedly proposed starting the government talks, but the North had not responded until Friday.
In a message to the South on Friday, North Korea offered to hold the talks on the northern side of Panmunjom, a village straddling the Koreas’ border, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency reported. The deal in August came after weeks of high tensions on the peninsula because of land mines that wounded two South Korean border guards. The South accused the North of planting the bombs and, in retaliation, turned on propaganda loudspeakers that had been dormant for years.
A reaction from South Korea was not immediately available.
The August deal followed weeks of high tensions on the peninsula after land mines wounded two South Korean border guards. The South blamed the North for planting the bombs and, in retaliation, turned on propaganda loudspeakers that had been dormant for years.