North Korea and South Korea made little progress Tuesday in
working out security arrangements for test runs of trains across
their heavily armed border in their first day of high-level
military talks, a South Korean official said.
The two Koreas agreed during economic talks last month to
conduct the test runs on May 17 on rebuilt rail tracks across their
border, but the tests cannot occur unless North Korean military
agrees to security arrangements.
If the rail tests go forward, it would be the first time trains
would cross the border in more than a half century.
Last year, the North called off a planned test run at the last
minute after the South rebuffed its demand for their contended sea
border to be redrawn.
In Tuesday's talks at the truce village of Panmunjom inside the
Demilitarized Zone, South Korea stressed the need for security
arrangements for the rail test, but the North instead made another
proposal, Colonel Moon Sung-mook said. He did not elaborate on the
proposal, but pool reports said the North wanted to broaden the
discussions to security guarantees for all joint Korean cooperation
projects a step likely to prevent agreement on arrangements for the
test runs scheduled next week.
The North also raised other unrelated issues, including its
western sea border with the South, casting a greater shadow over
plans for the test runs.
The North's chief delegate, Lieutenant General Kim Yong-chol,
called for joint fishing zones along the maritime border and ways
to avoid accidental naval clashes there, the North's official
Korean Central News Agency reported.
KCNA mentioned nothing about security arrangements for the train
test runs.
(China Daily via agencies May 9, 2007)
