No Korean military talks after North snubs South's call

[webfact]

No Korean military talks after North snubs South's call

 

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reacts with scientists and technicians of the DPRK Academy of Defence Science after the test-launch of the intercontinental ballistic missile Hwasong-14 in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang July, 5, 2017. KCNA/via REUTERS

 

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's proposed military talks aimed at easing tension between the two Koreas planned for Friday failed to happen after the North snubbed the call, a setback for new President Moon Jae-in's hopes for dialogue.

 

The North has remained silent on the South Korean proposal, made on Monday, for talks on ways to avoid hostilities along their heavily fortified border.

 

Moon took office in May pledging to engage the North in dialogue, as well as to bring pressure on it to impede its nuclear and missile programmes.

 

The proposal for talks came after the North said it conducted its first test of an intercontinental ballistic missile on July 4, and said it had mastered the technology to mount a nuclear warhead on it.

 

South Korean defence ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyun told a briefing the military talks proposed for Friday were practically impossible as the North had not responded.

 

"It is an urgent needed task for peace and stability on the Korean peninsula to restore dialogue in the military area and to ease military tension between the South and the North," he said.

 

Moon said the proposal for talks still stood and he urged the North to respond.

 

It was the first formal overture by South Korea since cross-border ties broke down early last year under the government of Moon's predecessor, who imposed unilateral sanctions on the North for its nuclear tests and missile launches.

 

The North has conducted its fourth and fifth nuclear tests and a quick succession of missile-related activities since the beginning of 2016, after leader Kim Jong Un had pledged to improve ties with the South in a New Year's address.

 

The South had proposed talks to discuss ways to end activities on the border that have fuelled tension.

 

By that, South Korea usually refers to loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts by both sides, while North Korea wants an end to joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises.

 

(Reporting by Jack Kim; Editing by Michael Perry, Robert Birsel)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-07-21

[Just1Voice]

This little fat boy with the screwed up hair cut is gonna wake up one day to the real world, and he's not going to like what he sees. 

[hawker9000]

17 hours ago, Just1Voice said:

This little fat boy with the screwed up hair cut is gonna wake up one day to the real world, and he's not going to like what he sees. 

Sleeping people "wake up".  Drunk people sober up.  Depressed people give up.  But psychotics?  For sociopaths like this one, they just drive the price of peace up.  By negotiating deals with fatboy and his antecedents, the U.S. and the rest of the world have only been progressively and dangerously "enabling" these NORK sickos.