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North-South General-level Military Talks Held

Korean Central News Agency of DPRK

    Mt. Kumgang, May 26 (KCNA) -- The first round of the north-south general-level military talks took place at Mt. Kumgang resort Wednesday to militarily guarantee the implementation of the historic June 15 North-South Joint Declaration. Present there were the north side's delegation led by Major-General of the Korean People's Army An Ik San and the south side's delegation with Commodore Pak Jong Hwa from the Ministry of National Defence of south Korea as chief delegate.
    At the talks the heads of the two sides made keynote addresses.
    The head of the north side said: One round of the ministerial talks of the armed forces of the two sides and more than 20 rounds of military working talks and contacts have taken place for the last four years since the adoption of the joint declaration. As a result, several agreements on military guarantee were adopted and effectuated to set up districts under the north-south control in the east and west coastal areas and push forward the railway and road projects for relinking the north and the south and thereby pulling down the barrier of division that has lasted for more than half a century. The day of opening them to traffic is at hand.
    There are several issues to be negotiated and settled between the two militaries at present, but we should settle, first of all, the issues which may spark a grave military conflict any moment.
    To begin with, propaganda in the frontline areas should be completely stopped as it is the leftover of the Cold War era which breeds seeds of confrontation and distrust and practical measures be taken as early as possible to eliminate all its means.
    It is also necessary to negotiate and settle the issue of preventing the skirmish on the West Sea at an early date. The two sides should not repeat the inglorious past in which the armed skirmish in the waters of the West Sea left painful wounds on the nation and put the favorably developing inter-Korean relations in the danger of going back to those of confrontation.
    Both sides shared the view that the issues of stopping the above-mentioned propaganda and eliminating its means and preventing skirmishes on the West Sea are urgent issues to be settled to ease the military tensions on the Korean peninsula and agreed to continue the discussion at the next talks.
    Both sides agreed to hold the second round of the inter-Korean general-level military talks at Mt. Solak resort in the area of the south side on June 3.