By KUNA,
Tokyo : South Korea has proposed holding working-level military talks with North Korea on Feb. 11, in what would be their first dialogue since the North’s deadly bombardment of a border island in November, Yonhap News Agency reported on Wednesday. “The proposed inter-Korean talks, which would be held at the border truce village of Panmunjom, are aimed at setting the time, place and agenda for a higher-level military meeting,” Kim Min-seok, a spokesman at the South Korean Defense Ministry, said in Seoul, according to the report. North Korea has yet to respond to the South’s proposal made via a military communications line at Panmunjom, Kim said.
The South’s proposal came less than a week after North Korea suggested that the two sides hold the working-level meeting between defense officials, as well as talks between their defense chiefs, to “resolve pending military issues.” The defense ministry has said it is willing to hold ministerial-level talks, but only if North Korea takes responsibility for the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island in November and the torpedoing of a warship last March. “North Korea must take responsible measures to account for the attacks on the Cheonan warship and Yeonpyeong Island, apologize for the attacks and pledged not to provoke again,” Kim was quoted as saying. “If North Korea refuses to do so, the ministerial-level talks won’t be held.” North Korea has so far denied any involvement in the torpedo attack of the Cheonan warship that killed 46 sailors, although a multinational investigation confirmed the North’s culpability. Pyongyang has also claimed that its artillery attack on Yeonpyeong Island, in which two marines and two civilians died, was legitimate because the South provoked first by holding a life-fire drill near the island with some shells falling on the North’s side.