South Korea yesterday offered to hold rare military talks with the North, aiming to ease tensions after Pyongyang tested its first intercontinental ballistic missile.
Talks could be held in the village of Panmunjom, just on the North Korean side of the border, on Friday, the ministry said, with the goal of ending "all acts of hostility" along the Military Demarcation Line that separates the two countries.
Seoul's Red Cross says it wants separate talks at the border village on August 1 to discuss family reunions.
Some say the outcome of military dialogue, even if it progresses, will be limited at a time when the North is demanding a halt to regular combined defense drills between the South and the United States, and sticking to its nuclear and missile programs as a means for survival, rather than a bargaining chip. Seoul began blaring anti-Pyongyang broadcasts and K-Pop songs via border loudspeakers, and Pyongyang responded with its own border broadcasts and launches of balloons carrying anti-South leaflets.
Pyongyang has said it refuses to sit down for dialogue unless Seoul turns over 12 waitresses who defected to the South previous year, which does not look likely.
"We hope that both sides will move in a positive direction to create conditions for breaking the deadlock and resuming dialogue and talks", the spokesman stressed.
North Korea is believed to possess hundreds of missiles capable of striking South Korea and Japan.
N.Korea vows to take 'corresponding measures' if UN adopts sanctions
An interceptor based in Alaska shot down an intermediate-range target launched over the Pacific Ocean north of Hawaii. The U.S. has also asked the Philippines and India, which also do trade there, to end those ties with North Korea .
After the ICBM launch, Kim said he would never negotiate over his weapons programs as long as US hostility and nuclear threats persist.
"After North Korea's frequent missile tests including its very first ICBM test, the global community has vowed to tighten sanctions, and China simply can not exclude itself from the recent movement, although it probably does not want to indefinitely cut off fuel sales to the North", Kang said.
Myanmar is a key country of interest, because it is unclear whether the country's military still purchases weapons from North Korea.
The two Koreas have been divided since the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.
Numerous estimated 60,000 South Koreans that have signed up to participate in these sporadically held inter-Korean reunions are elderly and have had virtually no contact with relatives living in the repressive North where contact with the outside world is highly restricted. About 28,500 American troops are stationed in South Korea.
The reunions are a highly emotional issue because most applicants are in their 70s or 80s and are desperate to see their loved ones before they die.
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