Koreas reduce border tension, while DPRK-US talks stalled

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The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the Republic of Korea (ROK) began destroying 20 front-line guard posts on Sunday under a plan to reduce tensions on the border, Yonhap reported citing Seoul's Defense Ministry.

According to the comprehensive military agreement signed on September 19, in the wake of the third summit between the DPRK, ROK leaders in Pyongyang, the two sides agreed to take a series of measures to prevent armed confrontation along the Military Demarcation Line and in the disputed water in the Yellow Sea.

Reduce tension – tear down border posts

Under the deal, both sides will completely withdraw troops and firearms from 22 guard posts in the Demilitarized Zone, but each will preserve a guard post on each side.

Yellow flags are seen at guard posts that are to be destroyed along the border between the North and the South Koreas, on November 4, 2018. /VCG Photo

Along the rest of the border, the ROK still has around 60 such posts, and the DPRK has about 160.

They will start work to verify the outcome of the destroying the guard posts in December.

The commander of the US Forces Korea Gen. Robert Abrams on Sunday praised the move, saying he supports the inter-Korean military agreement on reducing tension.

Exchange of gifts – tangerines and mushrooms

In another gesture to show the goodwill, Seoul sent a gift of 200 tons of tangerines to the DPRK on Sunday, in return for Pyongyang's mushrooms.

A combination of photos of tangerines from ROK's Jeju Islands and pine mushrooms from the DPRK. /CGTN Photo

DPRK's leader Kim Jong Un gave President Moon Jae-in two tons of pine mushrooms, worth of 1.5 billion won (1.83 million US dollars) after their summit in Pyongyang. These mushrooms would be sent to 4,000 people from the ROK who have been separated from their families in the Korean War.

Seoul's presidential office, the Blue House, told Yonhap on Sunday that tanergines were chosen because they are in season at the moment, and it is a kind of fruit that is rare in the DPRK.

Boxes of grapefruits are loaded into a cargo plane at the Jeju International Airport in Jeju Island, bound for Pyongyang, November 11, 2018. /VCG Photo

These fruits, packed in 20,000 boxes, were being sent to Pyongyang from the resort island of Jeju on four cargo planes on Sunday, it said.

Stall of talks – a second Trump-Kim meeting

The US and the DPRK appeared to be watching each other's next move after a scheduled meeting between US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and senior DPRK official Kim Yong Chol was called off.

The meeting was due to be held in New York last Thursday aimed at paving the way for a second summit between President Donald Trump and Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un and at making progress on denuclearization.

The US side later said DPRK officials canceled the trip and didn't board the plane to the US.

Pyongyang has complained that Washington has not made concessions in return for the moves it has taken. Last Friday it warned it could resume development of its nuclear program if the US did not drop its sanctions campaign.

US President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference following Tuesday's midterm congressional elections at the White House in Washington, DC, US, November 7, 2018. /Reuters Photo

The Trump administration has insisted that sanctions will not be lifted until Pyongyang gives up its weapons.

Speaking to reporters after the announcement of delays, Trump said he is "very happy" with how it was going with the DPRK at the moment, and his government is in "no rush."

He said he still expected to hold a second summit with Kim. “Sometime next year, I would say. Sometime early next year,” he said.

(With inputs from agencies)