Politics
09:42, 05-Jan-2018
DPRK accepts ROK proposal to hold high-level bilateral talks
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The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Friday accepted an offer from the Republic of Korea (ROK) to hold high-level talks, Yonhap reported.
Baek Tae-hyun, a spokesman of ROK's unification ministry, said the DPRK side confirmed its consent to hold talks on January 9 in a notice sent via the communications channel in the truce village of Panmunjom at about 10:16 a.m. local time (0116 GMT).
The high-level talks will be held at the Peace House, a building controlled by ROK in Panmunjom that straddles the heavily guarded inter-Korean demilitarised zone (DMZ). Officials from both sides are expected to discuss improvement of the inter-Korean relations and the DPRK's dispatch of its delegation to the ROK-hosted Winter Olympics, according to Baek.
Details on how to form the delegations and who represents the delegations for the high-level talks will be discussed through the exchange of letters over the Panmunjom hotline, the spokesman said.
The DPRK leader Kim Jong Un offered to hold talks over sending a delegation to the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang in his New Year's Day speech.
A ROK‘s government official checks the direct communications hotline to talk with the DRPK's side at the border village of Panmunjom, ROK, January 3, 2018. /VCG Photo
A ROK‘s government official checks the direct communications hotline to talk with the DRPK's side at the border village of Panmunjom, ROK, January 3, 2018. /VCG Photo
On the following day, the ROK proposed to hold “a senior-level inter-governmental dialogue between the South and the North (Koreas)” on January 9 to discuss issues of mutual concerns.
Meanwhile, the Panmunjom hotline of direct dialogue between the two sides was reopened earlier this week for the first time in almost two years amid rising signs of a thaw in inter-Korean relations.
The DPRK's confirmation came after ROK President Moon Jae-in and US President Donald Trump agreed not to conduct the annual war games between Seoul and Washington during the winter sports games period on Thursday night.
This will push back a set of annual military exercises known as Foal Eagle, which usually is held between February and April, coinciding with the 2018 Winter Olympic Games slated for February 9-25 and the Winter Paralympic Games on March 9-18.
Foal Eagle is a series of exercises designed to test the readiness of the two countries' militaries.
Pyongyang has denounced the ROK-US joint military exercises as a dress rehearsal for northward invasion.