28 September 2008 : AFP
South Korean Prime Minister Han Seung-Soo on Sunday said he hoped North Korea-proposed military talks would help thaw a chill in cross-border relations.
North Korea proposed Thursday to resume military talks next week in a rare overture to the South since President Lee Myung-Bak, who has been denounced as a "traitor" by Pyongyang, took office early this year.
"I hope North Korea will come to the dialogue with a pure intention," Han told a security forum. "I don't know what will be discussed but I hope it will become the starting point for improved inter-Korean relations in the future."
Seoul has yet to respond to the North's offer of a working-level military meeting on Tuesday. The South's defence ministry wants to make it some time in early October, Yonhap news agency said.
Military talks have previously focused on securing safety measures for passengers and cargo for the South-funded joint economic projects in the North.
Pyongyang has suspended all government-to-government contacts with Seoul since conservative President Lee took office in February with promises of a tougher North Korea policy.
Ties soured further after North Korean soldiers in July shot dead a Seoul tourist who strayed into a restricted zone at a North Korean resort.
The North has blamed the South for the incident and refused to let it send an investigation team. Seoul cancelled tours to the resort and withdrew staff.
The two nations have remained technically at war since their 1950-1953 war ended with an armistice and not a peace pact.
The proposal for new inter-Korean military talks came after the North announced it would start work to reactivate its plutonium-producing nuclear plant in Yongbyon in violation of an international disarmament deal.
On Sunday, the North said it would strengthen its military power and "consolidate the war deterrent" -- the term Pyongyang uses to refer to its nuclear weapons.
The comments were made in an article in the government Minju Joson newspaper, which also criticised plans for a joint US and South Korean military exercise scheduled for November.
"The US is meticulously and undisguisedly pushing forward its scheme to swallow up the whole of Korea by igniting a war of aggression against the DPRK (North Korea) and intruding marines into it from the sea," it said.
The North routinely describes exercises involving US and South Korean troops as a prelude to invasion, while the United States and South Korea say they are purely defensive.
Korea Forum Home Page
