Koreas Talk as North Positions Troops for War

There was no immediate official word on the outcome, but the South’s Yonhap news agency said both sides had reached agreement, with the North voicing “regret” for recent provocations, and the South conditionally undertaking to halt loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts into North Korea.

South Korea’s president has vowed “no retreat” in a tense military standoff with North Korea, and insisted Pyongyang apologise.

– Matthew Pennington, Washington, D.C.

Pyongyang is threatening a concerted military attack unless Seoul switches off banks of loudspeakers that have been blasting high-decibel propaganda messages into North Korea for the past week.

Park’s two liberal predecessors held summit talks with then North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, the late father of the current leader Kim, in Pyongyang in 2000 and 2007, respectively.

After days of marathon negotiations, the two Koreas announced a landmark agreement that centered on the South halting anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts in exchange for the North expressing regret over the injuries South Korean soldiers sustained from the explosion of landmines planted by the North.

High-level talks between North and South Korea have finally ended after nearly three days of harsh negotiations.

A KCNA report that surfaced Friday accused South Korea of igniting a “military provocation”.

“Past inter-Korea agreements at a time like this have tended to be extremely ambiguous”, said Jeung Young-Tae, an analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul.

For now, the attempt at diplomacy has pushed aside previous heated warnings of imminent war, but South Korea’s military said North Korea has continued to prepare for a fight, moving unusual numbers of troops and submarines to the border.

Almost 70 percent of DPRK submarines left their bases, with the second round being under way, the South Korean military said Sunday.

“The North is adopting a two-faced stance with the talks going on”, a ministry official said.

No casualties have been reported.

The terms were confirmed in a rare joint statement issued separately from the two capitals.

“The United State welcomes the agreement reached between the Republic of Korea and the DPRK earlier today”.

The spokesman also praised the South for remaining “resolute” throughout the crisis.

Despite the uncertainty, the crisis has failed to generate any real panic among ordinary South Koreans, who have become largely inured over the years to the North’s regular – and regularly unrealised – threats of imminent war. He did not disclose any other details about the talks.

South Korea will remove its loudspeakers from the border with North Korea only if tensions between the sides ease, a South Korean government source said Monday. North Korea had declared that its front-line troops were in full war readiness and prepared to go to battle if Seoul did not back down.

The first session of talks hit 10 hours, while the second dragged on for 24 hours.