Korea Herald
5/12/2007
South and North Korea agreed yesterday to provide military security guarantees for the upcoming railway test runs across their border, and to take long-term measures to ease tension on the peninsula.
The deal, struck during unusually lengthy military talks, marked a significant breakthrough in Seoul’s seven-year-old policy of engagement with Pyongyang. Despite growing economic cooperation and other exchanges between the two Koreas, their armed forces remained locked in a tense stand-off.
“The two sides have shared the view that preventing military conflict and creating a joint fishing zone in the West Sea is an issue to be urgently resolved in the course of easing military tension and establishing peace,” read a joint press release issued after an unscheduled fourth-day session of the talks held in the truce village of Panmunjom.
South and North Korea are at odds over their western sea border.
The United Nations forces unilaterally drew the Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the West Sea at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, but the North has called for a shift of the line southward.
North Korean fishing vessels and naval patrol ships often cross the line illegally. Two major deadly naval clashes occurred in 1999 and 2002.
The North also demanded that commercial vessels going to and from the North’s Haeju port near the NLL be able to pass through the sea border. Currently, North Korean ships have to take a long route through international waters to avoid the line.
The Koreas have agreed to discuss the issue after creating mutual military trust, according to the release signed by two-star generals.
The agreement on principle, however, lacks a concrete plan for taking the trust-building steps, with the two sides only saying they will continue related consultations.
The next round of general-grade talks is slated for July, and the specific date and venue will be fixed later, according to the release.
The two Koreas also adopted a separate statement of agreement on supporting the test runs of trains to run on two reconnected cross-border tracks on May 17. It will be a tentative step for the event, however.
South Korea called for a long-standing agreement to allow the safe passage of trains and vehicles across the heavily-armed Demilitarized Zone, but the North rejected the offer.
“The two sides have decided to discuss the issue of adopting a statement of agreement on military security for the operations of railways and roads,” the joint press release read.
The inter-Korean railroad was severed in 1951 and has been reconnected as a result of the historic summit between the leaders of the two Koreas in 2000.
During the test runs on May 17, a train carrying 100 people is scheduled to run from Munsan to Kaesong on a 27.3-kilometer line of the western section, and from Kumgang and Jejin on a 25.5-kilometer line of the eastern section – all across the Military Demarcation Line dividing the two countries.
