Koreas Discuss Reconciliation

NUKEWARS

North Korea's delegation head and Senior Cabinet Councilor Kwon Ho Ung(L) shakes hands with South Korean Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung during their meeting in Seoul. North and South Korea launched a new round of reconciliation talks Tuesday, calling for successful negotiations despite tensions over delays in Seoul's rice aid and Pyongyang's nuclear disarmament. Photo courtesy AFP.

by Lee Jong-Heon
UPI Correspondent
Seoul (UPI) May 30, 2007
South and North Korea opened high-level reconciliation talks Wednesday amid lingering missile and nuclear threats. The South is trying to use this week's talks to make substantial steps toward reducing military tensions across the border and resolving the prolonged nuclear standoff. However, the North remains reluctant to address military issues, instead seeking to win much-needed economic and food aid.

The ministerial talks make up the highest-level dialogue channel to coordinate cross-border reconciliation and cooperation since the 2000 summit between the two Koreas. This week's talks are the 21st round.

In a keynote speech held at a Seoul hotel, South Korean chief negotiator Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung called for efforts to disarm the Korean peninsula and build military confidence between the Cold War rivals.

"We stressed the necessity of implementing the Feb. 13 (nuclear) accord quickly, noting efforts to denuclearize are the basis for peace on the Korean peninsula," Ko Gyoung-bin, the spokesman for the South's delegation, told reporters.

Under the Feb. 13 deal, North Korea agreed to shut down its nuclear reactors in return for massive energy and economic aid. But the disarmament process has remained deadlocked due to a dispute over North Korea's funds frozen in a Macao bank.

As part of tension-reduction measures, Lee proposed putting newly reconnected cross-border railways to normal traffic, which would accelerate inter-Korean reconciliation and cooperation. Lee told North Korean delegates the proposed reconnection of rail links would benefit both Koreas, according to Ko.

Earlier this month South and North Korea conducted trial runs of the newly restored cross-border rail tracks on the west and east sides of the peninsula. It marked the first time that trains crossed the heavily fortified border since rail links were cut early in the 1950-53 Korean War -- a move that rekindled a reconciliation fever in the South.

But that was just a one-time link-up, because the North's military refused to open up railways largely due to concerns it would expose sensitive and secret installations near the border.

The South wants to start regular cross-border rail services and eventually reconnect inter-Korean railways to the trans-Siberian railway, through which Seoul can deliver products to Europe, a major export.

Earlier Wednesday South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun vowed to press ahead with his efforts to seek detente on the peninsula for eventual unification of the two Koreas.

"Steady exchanges between the two Koreas would eventually lead to the consolidation of the two governments," Roh told a forum.

At the Cabinet-level talks, the South's negotiators also proposed talks between their defense chiefs as early as possible to pave the way for rail links and discuss other military confidence-building measures. The two Koreas held their first defense ministers' talks in September 2000, but they failed to open a second round of talks in the wake of the nuclear and missile standoff.

Yet the South's hope of making progress in ending the nuclear standoff and tension reductions at this week's talks may be dashed as the North's negotiators repeated longstanding calls to abolish Seoul's anti-communist security law.

In his keynote speech, the North's chief delegate Kwon Ho Ung also urged South Korea to halt joint military exercises with the United States, saying they pose a threat to inter-Korean talks.

Kwon is expected to call for the resumption of aid shipments from the South during the talks, scheduled to end Friday.

The South said it would suspend rice supplies to North Korea until it shuts down its nuclear reactor under the Feb. 13 agreement, linking its economic aid to progress on the nuclear issue. The South has promised to provide 400,000 tons of rice aid to the impoverished North, with delivery originally set to begin in May.

In an apparent response, the North test-fired a short-range missile last week, which has exacerbated tensions on the peninsula, and the two countries remain technically in a state of war as the Korean War ended without a peace treaty.

The North's missile test Friday coincided with the launch of South Korea's first Aegis destroyer, a state-of-the-art warship that can track and shoot down aircraft and missiles.

Source: United Press International

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Russian Officials Tout Iskander MIRV As 21st Century ABM Buster

Kostroma, Russia (RIA Novosti) May 30, 2007
The commander of the Russian Ground Forces, Alexei Maslov, said Wednesday Russia has "a 21st century weapon," following two successful missile tests Tuesday. Earlier commenting on the tests - of a strategic RS-24 MIRV intercontinental missile launched from the north and a new version of the Iskander (SS-26), an advanced theater-level surface-to-surface missile in the south - Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said, "Russians need not worry about defense: they can look confidently to the future."

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