South, North Korea sign deal to reduce tensions

The marathon negotiations have pushed aside warnings of imminent war on the Korean peninsula, but South Korea said its neighbour continues to prepare for conflict and has doubled the strength of its frontline artillery forces.

South Korea says it has agreed to halt propaganda broadcasts after North Korea expressed regret over a recent land mine blast that maimed two South Korean troops.

The ruling Saenuri Party and the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy hailed the government’s efforts to elicit North Korea’s regret over the land mine explosion that wounded South Korean soldiers this month.

The United State welcomed the agreement reached between the Koreas late Monday.

To lower tensions, chief military aides to President Park Gyun-hae and top North Korean leader Kim Jong-un met in the truce village of Panmunjom from Saturday to Tuesday.

Despite the meeting, the militaries of the rival Koreas are on high alert for a possible clash over these broadcasts.

That’s because North Korea views the broadcasts as “psychological warfare”.

JoongAng Ilbo noted that “consumers remain deaf to (the) threat of war” and that the only report of panic in Seoul came from a North Korean propaganda website, which claimed that people were stockpiling necessities in Incheon city and flooding the airport there.

Its hovercraft move emerged as the US Army sent a B-52 Stratofortress “bunker-buster” warplane to the North Korean border amid escalating violence between the regime and its southern counterpart. “This is not a matter where we can back down, even if North Korea maximizes its provocations and threatens security like it did in the past”.

Many agree that the North’s expression of regret itself is a big accomplishment for the South, given its traditional refusal to acknowledge its responsibility for attacks on the South, including the 2010 torpedo attack on a warship.

The North Korea earlier, also threatened South with military action if it did not halt loudspeaker propaganda.

Kim’s order “is a unusual concept because North Korea lives in a sort of perpetual quasi-state of war, though this could be significant as it’s directed at the troops, not the whole country”, said John Delury, a professor at Seoul’s Yonsei University.

The South Korean official said Seoul hoped to start a new chapter in inter-Korea relations by forming a “trust through cooperation”, but also pointed out the North’s promise to put an end to its provocations came about due to an adherence to principle, and Seoul’s refusal to meet North Korean demands until its requirements were met.

South Korean defense officials said during the talks that about 70 percent of the North’s more than 70 submarines and undersea vehicles had left their bases and could not be located by the South Korean military.

Family reunions are a pressing humanitarian issue on the divided Korean Peninsula, as most of the separated family members are in their 70s and 80s, and wish to see their long-lost relatives before they die.