 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Seoul (AFP) Feb 28, 2010 South and North Korea on Sunday agreed to hold talks this week to ease access to a jointly run industrial estate just north of the heavily fortified border, officials said. The South's defence ministry said Seoul had accepted the North's revised offer to hold the talks on Tuesday at the Kaesong estate in North Korea. The talks are supposed to discuss ways to improve transport and communications links to the estate, where about 42,000 North Koreans work at more than 110 South Korean-funded plants. Both sides had been at odds, with the South first preferring to hold the meeting at Panmunjom, a truce border village, on February 23, while the North later demanded that it be rescheduled for March 2 in Kaesong. Broader diplomatic efforts have been intensifying to revive talks aimed at dismantling North Korea's nuclear programme. The frozen dialogue groups the two Koreas, Japan, China, Russia and the United States. North Korea's military on Thursday accused South Korean and US troops of planning a surprise attack as the two countries prepare joint exercises, and said it could respond with atomic weapons. Cross-border military tensions have run high since a Yellow Sea firefight last November left a North Korean patrol boat in flames. In late January the North fired some 370 shells into the sea near the disputed maritime border. Agreeing to the North's revised offer for talks, the South's defence ministry said Sunday a non-military official would lead the southern team to Tuesday's discussions in Kaesong. Both sides had pushed for colonel-led military talks. "Being headed by a unification ministry official, the meeting should be called an 'inter-Korean working-level' contact, not a military one," a defence ministry spokesman told AFP, without elaborating.
Share This Article With Planet Earth
Related Links Learn about nuclear weapons doctrine and defense at SpaceWar.com Learn about missile defense at SpaceWar.com All about missiles at SpaceWar.com Learn about the Superpowers of the 21st Century at SpaceWar.com
US envoy voices hope of reviving nuclear talks soonTokyo (AFP) Feb 27, 2010 A US envoy Saturday stepped up pressure on North Korea to return to nuclear disarmament negotiations, voicing hope they will resume "fairly soon." Stephen Bosworth, on a tour of Asia aimed at reviving the stalled six-party dialogue, said all the member states except North Korea "are prepared to move very quickly." "We will hope that the sixth - that is to say the DPRK (North Korea) - w ... read more |
|
|
| The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2010 - SpaceDaily. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement |
del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
YahooMyWeb
Google
Facebook