South Korea and North Korea are holding their first high-level talks in nearly a year in a bid to defuse mounting tensions that have led to the brink of a military confrontation.
The closed-door meeting at the border town of Panmunjom, where the armistice ending fighting in the Korean War was agreed in 1953, began shortly after a deadline set by North Korea for the South to dismantle loudspeakers broadcasting anti-North Korean propaganda.
North Korea has declared its front-line troops are in full war readiness and prepared to go to battle if Seoul does not back down.
The South Korean presidential office said earlier that the country’s national security director, Kim Kwan-jin, and Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo would sit down with Hwang Pyong So, the top political officer for the Korean People’s Army, and Kim Yang Gon, a senior North Korean official responsible for South Korean affairs.
Mr Hwang is considered by outside analysts to be North Korea’s second most important official after supreme leader Kim Jong Un.
The meeting came as a series of incidents raised fears that the conflict could spiral out of control, starting with a land mine attack, allegedly by the North, that maimed two South Korean soldiers, and the South’s resumption of anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts.
A South Korean Defence Ministry official said that the South would continue with the anti-Pyongyang broadcasts during the meeting and would make a decision on whether to halt them depending on the result of the talks.
Analysts in Seoul believe the North fears that the South’s broadcasts could demoralise its frontline troops and inspire them to defect
South Korea had been using 11 loudspeaker systems along the border for the broadcasts, which included the latest news around the Korean Peninsula and the world, South Korean popular music and programmes praising the South’s democracy and economic affluence over the North’s oppressive government, a senior military official said.
If North Korea attacks the loudspeakers, the South is ready to strike back at the North Korean units responsible for such attacks, he added.
North Korea, which has also restarted its own propaganda broadcasts, is extremely sensitive to any criticism of its government. Analysts in Seoul also believe the North fears that the South’s broadcasts could demoralise its frontline troops and inspire them to defect.
The high-level meeting was first proposed by Pyongyang on Friday. The rival countries reached an agreement to meet yesterday morning after the North accepted the South’s demand that Mr Hwang would be present at the meeting.
Mr Hwang and Kim Yang Gon visited South Korea last October during the Asian Games in Incheon, but their meeting with Mr Kim, the South’s national security director, and then unification minister Ryoo Kihl-jae failed to produce a tangible outcome in improving ties.
The North’s State-run media has strongly ratcheted up its rhetoric, saying the nation is bracing for the possibility of an all-out war. Kim Jong Un has been shown repeatedly on TV news broadcasts leading a strategy meeting with the top military brass to review the North’s attack plan.