3/3 Discussion

North Korea holds talks with UN as tensions rise



Reuters Published: March 2, 2009


North Korean generals met the U.S.-led military command of the United Nations in South Korea for the first time in about seven years on Monday after Pyongyang warned over the weekend that "arrogant" acts by U.S. troops could spark a war.


News reports had said that North Korea protested the joint U.S.-South Korean military drills scheduled to start next week and the activities of American troops stationed in South Korea.


"North Korea argued that holding the joint military training at a moment when the situation on the Korean Peninsula is already tense would only raise more tension," the Yonhap news agency of South Korea reported, quoting a military official.


The United Nations said North Korea had requested the meeting, but it gave no details on the results of the talks, which were held at Panmunjom, a village inside the demilitarized zone.
North Korea has stoked tensions in recent weeks by preparing a test flight of its longest-range missile, which is designed to carry a weapon as far as Alaska but has never successfully flown, U.S. and South Korean officials have said.


North Korea also has severed dialogue with the South and threatened to reduce its neighbor to ashes in anger at President Lee Myung Bak's policy of cutting off what once had been a free flow of unconditional aid and tying handouts to the North's nuclear disarmament.


The Korean Central News Agency of North Korea on Saturday quoted a military official from the North as saying in a note to the South Korean military: "If the U.S. forces keep behaving arrogantly in the area under the control of the North and the South," the North Korean Army "will take a resolute counteraction."


The official said U.S. troops had come near the border several times in the past two months, warning that such acts "may touch off unpredictable military conflicts."


The border, called the Military Demarcation Line, is at the center of the demilitarized zone. North Korea puts most of its 1.2 million troops near this zone.


North Korean, South Korean and U.S. soldiers are on their respective sides of the Military Demarcation Line on a daily basis in Panmunjom, where low-level meetings can be arranged by shouting into a bullhorn to the other side.


U.S.-led United Nations forces signed an armistice in 1953 and the United States has kept troops in the South after the fighting ended to deter North Korea from attacking again.


There are about 28,000 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea to support its 670,000 soldiers.
North Korea over the weekend denounced the South Korean-U.S. military drills as a prelude to an invasion. The annual drills have been held without major incident for years.


The new U.S. administration will be sending Stephen Bosworth, its special envoy for North Korea, to the region this week, with stops in China, Japan and South Korea, the State Department said.


In Seoul, Bosworth is expected to meet Wi Sung Lac, a specialist in North American affairs and an adviser to the foreign minister, who was named Monday as South Korea's new chief for six-country talks on ending North Korea's nuclear program.



Source:

http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=284892410779679689