Story highlights
After nearly 10 hours of meetings, the two sides agree to continue talks later Sunday
Talks underway at "truce village" in Demilitarized Zone
North Korea calls South Korea by its proper name and not by a propaganda moniker
At a time of mounting tensions and heated rhetoric on the Korean peninsula, the two sides concluded nearly 10 hours of talks early Sunday at the historic “truce village” inside the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) with plans to meet again later in the day, South Korean officials said.
The talks, held inside the Demilitarized Zone, featured key players such as Hwang Pyong So, who is the reclusive regime’s leader’s deputy and political director of North Korea’s army.
“He can speak with the authority of Kim Jong Un. This is as high as you can go. He has the longest history, best idea of what Kim Jong Un and what he’s hoping to get out of it,” Professor David Kang of the University of Southern California’s Korean Studies Institute told CNN.
“He can speak with the authority of Kim Jong Un. This is as high as you can go. He has the longest history, best idea of what Kim Jong Un and what he’s hoping to get out of it,” Kang said.
Kim Yang Gon’s attendance may signal that the North really wants serious wide-ranging negotiations.
From South Korea, Kim Kwan-jin, national security adviser to the president; and Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo attended the meeting.
The meetings at the Peace House at Panmunjom adjourned at 4:15 a.m. (Korea Standard Time) Sunday, according to Min Kyung-wook, spokesman for the South Korean presidential office. Talks will resume at 3 p.m. (KST).
“Both sides widely discussed resolving the recent situation and the future development of the relationship between South and North,” the spokesman said.
The meeting comes after days of threats and counter-threats, which saw a brief exchange of artillery fire Thursday.
Hostilities escalated this month after South Korea resumed propaganda broadcasts against the North, which was blamed for a landmine explosion in the DMZ that wounded two South Korean soldiers. The North resumed its anti-South broadcasts.
But there was a further sign that tensions could ease: In a rare move, North Korean state TV referred to the South as the “Republic of Korea,” rather than with the usual propaganda term the “puppet state” in its reporting on the diplomatic talks.
South Korean TV broadcaster YTN re-broadcast the clip of North Korean TV using South Korea’s proper name.
The resort area of Imjingak in Paju city, only 7 kilometers (4 miles) from the DMZ, which is usually open to tourists, was closed Saturday, and an information phone line went unanswered when CNN called.
North Korea: Stop “provocations”
North Korea outlined an ultimatum Friday to its southern neighbor: Stop the “provocations” and “psychological warfare” or pay the price.
South Korea’s pro-democracy broadcasts, via loud speakers across the border with the North, restarted after the two South Korean soldiers were wounded by landmines.
The South has set up 11 broadcasting points from which it intermittently blasts a combination of democracy content, world news and weather reports into North Korea, the South’s Defense Ministry said. It is a tactic the South had stopped using for 10 years.
An official with South Korea’s Defense Ministry told CNN that the propaganda loudspeakers along the DMZ are still in operation, and evacuation orders for residents near the zone remain in effect.
“If South Korea does not respond to our ultimatum,” North Korean U.N. ambassador An Myong Hun told reporters, “our military counteraction will be inevitable and that counteraction will be very strong.”
As a result of the threats, residents in northern areas of South Korea, such as the district of Yeoncheon, which neighbors the DMZ, were being urged to evacuate Saturday.
Threats almost normal, but this is pointed
North Korea’s regime, known for being both thin-skinned and fond of saber rattling, has made plenty of threats before. In fact, articulating derogatory and intimidating words about South Korea and the United States has been more the norm than not for years.
South Korea is limiting the number of its citizens entering the joint industrial zone with the North, but the complex was still operating on Friday. There are currently 83 South Koreans in Pyongyang attending a youth soccer event.
South Korea’s Defense Ministry said Saturday that troops on the border areas were on “regular position.”
Pyongyang’s vitriol and insults about South Korea and the United States have been the norm for years.
What makes this case different, though, is that two South Korean soldiers have been seriously wounded (by landmines August 4 in the Demilitarized Zone) and that there’s been firing back-and-forth since then. An said Friday that “all the (North Korean) frontline large combined units (have) entered into a wartime state … fully armed to launch any surprise operations and finish their preparations for action.”
Ambassador An said Friday that “all the (North Korean) front-line large combined units entered into a wartime state … fully armed to launch any surprise operations and finish their preparations for action.”
Specifically, this threat is tied to cross-border propaganda loudspeakers that South Korea resumed using last week for the first time in a decade. Pyongyang is demanding they be turned off by Saturday evening.
U.S., South Korea exercises resume
South Korean Defense Minister Han Min-koo accused North Korea of pushing the tensions “to the utmost level.”
“North Korea’s offensive action is a despicable crime that breaks a ceasefire agreement and the non-aggression treaty between North and South,” Han said Friday in an address broadcast on South Korean television.
“If North Korea continues on provoking, our military – as we have already warned – will respond sternly, and end the evil provocations of North Korea,” he said, adding the country is working closely with the United States.
As the verbal sniping continued, the South’s President, Park Geun-hye, visited troops at a base south of Seoul, receiving a briefing from military officials on the latest situation, her office said.
One ongoing point of contention is South Korea’s joint military exercises with the United States – a regular training event that An contends aims to “occupy Pyongyang.”
Those exercises were suspended Thursday amid the war of words, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense David Shear told reporters. But they’re now back on.
“We suspended part of the exercise temporarily in order to allow our side to coordinate with the ROK (Republic of Korea) side on the subject of the exchange fire across the DMZ,” Shear said “And the exercise is being conducted now according to plan.”
During such exercises in the past, Pyongyang has escalated posturing, propaganda and threats.
North Korea calls broadcasts ‘an open act of war’
South Korea and the U.S.-led U.N. Command in Korea concluded that North Korea planted the mines that wounded the South Korean soldiers.
North Korea has denied responsibility and refused South Korean demands for an apology.
Seoul has since resumed its cross-border propaganda broadcasts, which North Korea called “an open act of war” and spurred it to threaten to blow up the speakers.
On Thursday, South Korean officials said the North fired artillery shells over the Demilitarized Zone that separates the two countries. A U.S. official told CNN that North Korea was believed to be targeting a loudspeaker position.
Kathy Novak reported from Paju, South Korea, and Euan McKirdy reported from Hong Kong. CNN’s K.J. Kwon, Kyung Lah, Ray Sanchez, Barbara Starr, Felicia Wong, Jethro Mullen, Brian Todd and Don Melvin and journalist Jung-eun Kim contributed to this report.