Seoul to suggest date for meeting with N.K. on high-level defense talks

The South Korean Defense Ministry said Friday it will suggest a date for a preparatory meeting with North Korea next week to arrange the high-level military talks.

“The preliminary talks are likely to be held in February if the two sides agree on the agenda and other issues,” said ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok, adding that colonels from the two sides will likely hold the preparatory talks.

While accepting North Korea’s proposal to hold the high-level defense talks, the Seoul government again emphasized the need for North Korea’s apology for two deadly attacks last year.

“The agenda this time will include North Korea’s pledge not to make any further provocations as well as an apology” for its March attack against a Seoul warship and the November attack on a border island, said Chun Hae-sung, spokesman for South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles affairs with North Korea.

“We do recognize the importance of these talks for peace and better inter-Korean ties,” he said.

North Korea has denied its role in the attacks, which killed dozens of sailors as well as two civilians. Seoul has reacted by stubbornly refusing talks.

The government will also propose separate talks with Pyongyang to verify its pledge to dismantle its nuclear facilities, the spokesman said, saying denuclearization was a key issue even if it was not included in the agenda of the upcoming talks.

“High-level governmental talks are also needed to confirm the commitment to denuclearization, which is the most important pending security issue,” Chun said.

North Korea refuses to discuss denuclearization issues with Seoul, claiming its atomic arms are aimed at deterring the U.S., not the SoutH.

The denuclearization issue has been discussed in the six-nation talks involving the two KoreaS, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia since 2003. North Korea, going through an unstable power transfer and in apparent need of outside aid, wants to restart the talks, which have been stalled since 2008.

Pyongyang officially proposed defense talks with Seoul on Thursday, providing a breakthrough to discuss the two deadly attacks it made against Seoul Korea last year.

North Korea has taken “a firm stance to resolve” all pending military issues with the South, including the sinking of the warship Cheonan and the bombing of Yeonpyeong Island, in the high-level talks, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency reported Friday.

The talks come on the heels of the U.S. and China summit, during which the two strongest regional powers agreed that dialogue between the Koreas was essential to securing a peaceful, nuclear-free Korean Peninsula.

Regional powers are waiting to see whether the inter-Korean talks agreed to Thursday will lead to large-scale dialogue aimed at denuclearizing North Korea.

The United States welcomed North Korea’s proposal for high-level inter-Korean military dialogue.

“We welcome dialogue between North Korea and South Korea,” said U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley.

The spokesman reiterated Washington will not be immediately jumping into talks with Pyongyang after the inter-Korean dialogue takes place.

“We’re looking for clear signs that North Korea will seriously meet its obligations and demonstrates that it’s prepared to have constructive dialogue,” he said. “We don’t want to call a resumption of the six-party process until we are confident that those kinds of discussions will be productive.”

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs called the agreement “an important step forward.”

Overcoming their once-divided view, U.S. President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao agreed during their talks Thursday on the importance of resuming the six-nation negotiations and halting North Korea’s provocations.

Analysts here had said the South Korean government will have to accept Pyongyang’s proposal for talks sooner or later to avoid being left out in the talks that will discuss issues that directly affect the peninsula.

North Korea unveiled a new uranium enrichment facility to a U.S. expert last year, apparently urging dialogue partners to resume talks to halt its nuclear ambitions.

Uranium, if highly enriched, can be used to make nuclear weapons, giving Pyongyang an alternative to plutonium. The communist state has conducted two atomic tests already.

The last government-level talks between the two Koreas took place last February, during which working-level officials discussed issues of resuming cross-border tours to the North’s mountain resort and inter-Korean trade. The two countries’ defense chiefs last met in Pyongyang in November 2007, a month after the second summit between the leaders of their countries.

By Shin Hae-in (hayney@heraldcorp.com)