Associated Press
Pyongyang, August 22: South Korea and North Korea were holding their first high-level talks in nearly a year at a border village today to defuse mounting tensions that have pushed the rivals to the brink of a possible military confrontation. The talks came shortly after an afternoon deadline set by North Korea for South Korea to dismantle loudspeakers broadcasting anti-North Korean propaganda at their border.
North Korea had declared its front-line troops are in full war readiness and prepared to go to battle if Seoul doesn’t back down. The closed-door meeting at Panmunjom began early today evening, said an official from South Korea’s Unification Ministry, who didn’t want to be named because of office rules. The official did not give details.
The South Korean presidential office said earlier that the country’s national security director, Kim Kwan-jin, and Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo would sit down with Hwang Pyong So, the top political officer for the Korean People’s Army, and Kim Yang Gon, a senior North Korean official responsible for South Korean affairs. Hwang is considered by outside analysts to be North Korea’s second most important official after supreme leader Kim Jong Un.
