Rival Koreas find a way to avoid disaster, reach deal

South Korea stopped all propaganda broadcasts in frontline areas from noon Tuesday as agreed upon during the top-level talks between chief military aides to the leaders of the two Koreas, Xinhua cited an official at Seoul’s defence ministry as saying.

Some critics of Pyongyang say it generates crises to remind South Korea and the US that it is there and should be treated as important – and also to keep its own citizenry on high alert.

It’s unclear how long the good mood will continue: The Koreas have a history of failing to follow through on their promises and allowing simmering animosity to interrupt diplomacy. Relations have steadily deteriorated since the last summit and by the time Kim Jong Un took over after his father’s death in 2011 and Park was elected in 2013, ties were decidedly frosty.

Earlier this year, North Korea test fired a medium-range ballistic missile with an about 1,800-mile range, according to Russian state-run outlet Sputnik News.

On the written agreement, the DPRK expressed regret over the injured South Korean soldiers from the mine explosion.

South Korea and the United States are conducting a 12-day joint annual war game, which kicked off a week earlier, despite the DPRK ‘s denunciation of it as a rehearsal for northward invasion. By the close, the two sides hammered out a pact that ended a standoff that last week had included an exchange of artillery fire in one of the world’s most unsafe flashpoints.

But South Korea’s Defence Minister Kim Min-seok said the South would “maintain its defence posture for the possibility of another provocation”.

“South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye said the deal ‘could serve as an occasion to resolve all inter-Korean issues through trust.’ North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has yet to release an official statement”. There were no details on whether the North addressed the artillery claim in Tuesday’s deal.

North Korea often makes conciliatory gestures to win concessions and aid from rivals after stoking tensions. But Welsh also said his concerns about North Korea had not changed drastically. There have also been comparatively minor sources of conflict, such as South Korean activists distribution of anti-North leaflets and the suspension of South Korean tours to Mount Kumgang in the North.

While the Koreas have difficulty agreeing to talks, once they do, marathon sessions are often the rule.

No injuries were reported in either incident, but the North reacted with fury, declaring that its front-line troops were in full war readiness and prepared to go to battle unless Seoul dismantled the loudspeakers by Saturday. During the latest Panmunjom talks, the first session lasted about 10 hours and the second session about 33 hours.

South Korea agreed to stop all propaganda broadcasts “as far as abnormal situations are not unfolded”.

South Korean defense officials said during the negotiations 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.

Days later, the South began blasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda from loudspeakers along the border, reviving a tactic that both sides had halted in 2004.

“We’re going to judge the North by its actions”, U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby told a briefing.