Ruling party urges N. Korea to accept S. Korea’s offer for military talks

The ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) on Thursday urged North Korea to accept South Korea’s proposal for military talks aimed at clarifying the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) to prevent possible clashes near the inter-Korean border.

The proposal came as North Korean soldiers — including those who were armed — have repeatedly, albeit temporarily, crossed the MDL while working near the border, such as clearing land or laying mines in the buffer zone.

“North Korea should immediately respond to our calls,” Rep. Kim Byung-kee, the DPK’s floor leader, said during a policy coordination meeting at the National Assembly. “As South Korea’s first official proposal for talks with the North since President Lee Jae Myung took office, it will mark an important opportunity to resume inter-Korean dialogue.”

He stressed that the proposed meeting is intended to prevent accidental clashes along the MDL and ease military tensions.

“North Korea strongly criticized the outcome of the South Korea-U.S. summit through its state-run Korean Central News Agency recently, but I will not respond to each of its claims,” he said. “If the North has something to say, it can fully do so when inter-Korean talks are held.”

Since April last year, Pyongyang has deployed troops near the MDL within the Demilitarized Zone to plant mines, erect anti-tank barriers and reinforce barbed wire fences after the country’s leader Kim Jong-un described inter-Korean ties as those between “two states hostile to each other” in late 2023.

North Korean troops are known to have intruded over the border about 10 times this year alone, including in October when two North Korean soldiers briefly crossed the border in an attempt to chase another North Korean soldier defecting to the South.

In response, the South Korean military has broadcast a warning message when North Korean troops moved close to the MDL and subsequently fired warning shots when they violated the boundary.

If held, it will mark the first inter-Korean military talks since the two Koreas held general-level military talks in 2018. They have held two ministerial-level talks and 40 working-level talks since 2000.