North Korea has proposed military talks with South Korea to discuss border disputes, the Defense Ministry said Thursday, in another sign that the North is reaching out to its southern rival after months of high tension.
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North Korea on Wednesday proposed working-level military talks to discuss preventing naval clashes along the disputed western sea border, ministry officials said. Another topic the North said it wanted to discuss was leaflets sent across the border by South Korean activists that urge North Koreans to rise up against their leader, Kim Jong-il.
Relations between the two Koreas have chilled since President Lee Myung-bak took office in Seoul in early 2008. They deteriorated further after a South Korean warship, the Cheonan, sank in March near the disputed border, in what Seoul and Washington say was a North Korean torpedo attack. Forty-six sailors were killed. The North denied the accusation, demonstrating its displeasure by firing a barrage of artillery in the border waters.
In recent weeks, however, Pyongyang has made some conciliatory gestures. It freed the crew of a seized South Korean fishing boat and offered to resume reunions of families separated by the Korean War. Officials from the two Koreas were scheduled to meet Friday to discuss the reunions.
South Korea has welcomed the moves and responded by offering humanitarian aid for flood victims in North Korea.
The military talks, if they are held, would be the first in almost two years. But Seoul is wary of what it considers the North Korean tactic of following up provocative acts with offers of talks to win concessions. ''Taking into consideration that North Korea has not admitted to or apologized for sinking the Cheonan, the government is reviewing the North's proposal cautiously,'' the Defense Ministry said in a statement Thursday.
On Wednesday, Kim Tae-hyo, a senior policy adviser for President Lee, reaffirmed that South Korea would withhold large-scale aid until North Korea apologized for the sinking. North Korea reportedly needs aid to help cope with extensive flood damage that has strained its already moribund economy at a time when Kim Jong-il is said to be preparing his son to inherit the leadership.
Without explanation, North Korea appears to have postponed a major gathering of delegates of the ruling Workers' Party it had said it would convene in early September. Mr. Kim was widely expected to use the meeting to help his son expand his power base.
The so-called Northern Limit Line - a maritime sea border drawn unilaterally by the United Nations Command at the end of the Korean War but never accepted by the North - has been the scene of three naval clashes in 11 years.
On Thursday, colonel-level officers from North Korea and the U.N. Command met on the border in their fifth session since the Cheonan sinking. They were discussing the timing and agenda for general-level talks on armistice issues related to the sinking.
