Inter-Korea Military Talks Bog Down

On October 2, working-level military talks between South and North Korea were held in Tongilgak located in the North Korean truce village of Panmunjeom and ended after two hours without any progress. The one-day meeting was the first contact between military officials after five months of stalled relations since the general-level military talks in May.

"Pyongyang raised some recent sensitive cases including dispersing anti-North Korea propaganda by conservative civic groups via balloons across the border and violations of regulations in the Gaesong Industrial Complex and at Mt. Geumgang resort, and they also urged us to prevent a recurrence,” Col. Moon Seong-mook, chief of the North Korea policy team at the South Korea’s Defense Ministry, told reporters.

For the South Korean side, Seoul explained that the South Korean government also had urged the civic groups to be more self-restrained over the anti-North activities. At the same time, Seoul demanded Pyongyang to be more generous with the existing social diversity in South Korea, said Col. Moon.

ysh1005@donga.com