Two Koreas begin military dialogue in rough start

By Byun Duk-kun

PANMUNJOM, Korea, Oct. 2 (Yonhap) -- Officials from the two Koreas met here in the joint security area inside the demilitarized zone Thursday for first military dialogue between the divided Koreas in eight months.

The meeting got off to a rough start as North Korean delegates demanded the talks
be open to the media for coverage.
Dialogue began almost one hour later than originally scheduled after South
Korea's chief delegate to the talks, Col. Lee Sang-cheol, strongly protested,
accusing the North of trying to turn the venue into what he called one-sided
propaganda.
"What your side is demanding sounds like you are interested in announcing what
you want to say rather than finding ways to solve the problems on at hand," Lee
told his North Korean counterpart, Col. Pak Rim-su.
Pak insisted that at least one of North Korean journalists be allowed to remain
and record the entire meeting. He finally caved on the demand when the South
Korean delegation pointed out that no previous inter-Korean dialogue has been
fully open to the media.
Thursday's meeting marked the first official dialogue between the two Koreas
since South Korea's Lee Myung-bak administration was inaugurated in February,
vowing to take a tougher stance on North Korea than its liberal predecessors.
The countries last held military talks on Jan. 25.
Pak, the North's chief delegate, noted the importance of the first working-level
military talks in eight months, saying: "How we proceed with today's talks will
have a great influence on the overall North-South relationship in the future."
Lee, the chief South Korean delegate who heads the Defense Ministry's North Korea
policy bureau, agreed, saying both peoples of the two Koreas have great hopes and
expectations for the talks, and thus the sides must work sincerely to produce
good results.
Thursday's meeting is the result of an earlier proposal by North Korea. Pyongyang
had proposed the military dialogue be held Tuesday. Seoul made a counterproposal
to meet Thursday, to which the North agreed in a message sent Wednesday.
Little was known about which issues the North wished to discuss at the military
talks as the communist nation has not specified an agenda for the first
inter-Korean meeting since February.
"Today, Col. Lee Sang-cheol and I are holding talks as North-South relations are
in very serious condition," Pak said at the start of the bilateral meeting. The
North Korean earlier refused to reveal the agenda for Thursday's meeting when
asked.
The chief South Korean delegate earlier noted the North had often used the venue
for military dialogue to make unilateral demands or accusations against South
Korea.
"There have been many rounds of South-North talks in the past, but it is true
that most of them have been one-sided. I will do my utmost to meet the high
expectations of our people by facing any challenges today in a dignified manner,"
he has said.
North Korea has cut off all its dialogue channels with the South since the
inauguration of the Lee government. The inter-Korean relations dipped to its
lowest point in July when a 53-year-old South Korean housewife was shot and
killed by North Korean guards while touring at the North's Mount Geumgang resort.
Pyongyang has refused to launch a joint investigation into the deadly shooting
incident, prompting Seoul to suspend all tours to Mount Geumgang.
Thursday's meeting also comes after Pyongyang last week announced it will soon
reactivate its plutonium-producing nuclear facilities at Yongbyon. Christopher
Hill, the chief U.S. nuclear negotiator, was set to return to South Korea later
Thursday, following his two-day trip to Pyongyang that began with his crossing of
the military demarcation line that divides the two Koreas.