Deal Reached to Help Prevent Naval Clashes


By Ryu Jin
Staff Reporter

MT. SORAK - South and North Korea have agreed on a package of measures aimed at avoiding accidental clashes in the disputed western sea border, after marathon overnight negotiations at this mountain resort on Friday.

The agreement will have the rival navy authorities use a military hotline, share a radio frequency, use joint signaling systems and exchange information to monitor illegal fishing by Chinese in the area from June 15.

``The two sides will keep their respective warships and other vessels under tight control so they will not confront each other in the West Sea,’’ according to a written agreement made during the rare inter-Korean meeting of general-grade military officers.

``Both sides will not take undue physical action toward each other’s warships or civilian ships,’’ it said.

The North agreed on the four measures proposed by Seoul regarding clash prevention and South Korea accepted the North’s demand to phase out hundreds of electric signboards and loudspeakers for propaganda broadcasts along the 248-kilometer land border by Aug. 15.

The two sides also agreed to hold working-level talks at the North’s border city, Kaesong, next Thursday, which falls on the fourth anniversary of the historic inter-Korean summit on June 15, 2000. The decision raises hopes for the institutionalization of the inter-Korean military talks as next week’s meeting will be held within the framework of the general-grade plenary sessions.

In contrast to the active economic exchanges in recent years, direct military contacts have been very rare, which raises the need to ease tension and build confidence along the border, now guarded by land mines, barbed wire and 1.7 million soldiers.

At the repeated request of Seoul, Pyongyang agreed to hold the first general-grade military talks on Wednesday last week. Though the unprecedented get-together at the North’s Mt. Kumgang ended without result, the two sides agreed to make joint efforts to ease tension on the peninsula and held another one-day meeting on June 3 at the South’s Mt. Sorak.

The meeting place, a hotel on Mt. Sorak, is about 10 kilometers south of the border and 200 kilometers northeast of Seoul. The five-member North Korean delegation arrived at the hotel early on Thursday morning, after traveling across the four-kilometer-wide demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas by car.

The second round of talks, originally planned to close within the day, didn’t proceed smoothly, however. South Korea stressed the urgency of joint measures to ease tensions on the poorly marked western maritime border during June’s crab-catching season, citing bloody naval clashes in 1999 and 2002. The North, for its part, insisted both sides first stop propaganda broadcasts via loudspeaker and dismantle electric signboards along the heavily fortified land border.

The sides also showed sharp differences on the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the de facto western sea border, which was unilaterally drawn by the U.S.-led United Nations Command following the 1950-53 Korean War.

The two Koreas failed to include any mention of the NLL in the three-page written agreement, signed by both chief negotiators.


Highlights of Inter-Korean Military Talks
The two sides agree to

▣ Make joint efforts to ease military tension and establish peace on the Korean peninsula.

▣ Take measures to prevent accidental vessel clashes in the West Sea

▣ Stop propaganda activities and remove relevant tools in the border area in order to relieve military tension

▣ Hold further military talks to implement the agreed points