DATE=8/13/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=KOREAS / LIAISON OFFICES - L
NUMBER=2-265425
BYLINE=AMY BICKERS
DATELINE=SEOUL
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: North and South Korea have reopened liaison
offices in a village located in the no man's land
between their heavily armed border. As V-O-A
Correspondent Amy Bickers reports from Seoul, the
offices will allow direct communication between the
two governments, underscoring the recent thaw in their
tense relationship.
TEXT: At the beginning of what is being called
Reconciliation Week, North and South Korea have
reestablished their border offices after closing them
four years ago.
The liaison offices at Panmunjom (PRONO: pan-MUN-johm)
lie in the middle of the demilitarized zone separating
the two nations. They will contain telephones as well
as high-tech communications gear so that officials in
the two countries
can exchange messages. The main idea is to make sure
they can communicate quickly in emergencies.
South Korea's Unification Minister (Park Jae-kyu) says
this is another example that the South and North Korea
have the will to faithfully implement June's landmark
summit agreement between President Kim Dae-jung of
South Korea and his North Korean counterpart, Kim Jong
Il.
The liaison offices first opened in 1992, but were
closed four years later in part because of tensions
over North Korea's suspected nuclear program.
The Koreas take another step toward warmer relations
Tuesday, when 200 North and South Koreans will be
reunited with their families divided by geopolitics on
the peninsula for some 50 years.
/// OPT /// More than 70-thousand South Koreans had
applied to take part in the visits arranged by the Red
Cross. /// END OPT ///
In other recent signs of progress, the Koreas have
ceased propaganda broadcasts against each other and
agreed to reconnect a cross-border train system, which
was cut off just before the start of the Korean War in
1950.
Despite the recent warming in bilateral relations, the
two countries still remain
technically at war. (SIGNED)
NEB/HK/AB/JO
14-Aug-2000 02:48 AM LOC (14-Aug-2000 0648 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
|
Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list
|
|
|
