INTER-KOREAN MILITARY TALKS ABORTED
Pyongyang, February 10 (KCNA) -- The inter-Korean high-level military talks aimed at wiping out the mistrust and hostility and preventing confrontation and clash between the north and the south failed to open after all. The north side delegation to the north-south military talks Wednesday issued a communique laying bare the true nature of the persistent confrontation policy of the south Korean group of traitors as revealed through the inter-Korean dialogue.
According to the communique, preliminary talks for the opening of the full-dress talks took place in Panmunjom on Tuesday and Wednesday. They were adjourned seven times, wasting time, and ended in rupture.
The north side at first proposed "On clarifying a view on the ′Cheonan′ Case and the Yonphyong Island Shelling and defusing military tension on the Korean Peninsula" as the agenda of the high-level military talks.
The puppet forces, however, challenged the proposal by insisting on adopting "Responsible measures over the sinking of ′Cheonan′ by an explosion and the shelling of Yonphyong Island and giving assurances against additional provocations and sincere approach towards denuclearization" as the agenda of the talks.
In the course of the preliminary talks they were at a loss how to deal with the north side′s just compromise suggestion and perfect logic. They unilaterally insisted on adopting "responsible measures" over the above-said incidents and "giving assurances against additional provocations" as the agenda of the talks till the last moment the talks broke down. They thus revealed their sinister intention to use the north-south high-level military talks as another theatre of inter-Korean confrontation.
Meanwhile, they let media float the story that they strongly demanded the north make "apology" for the two incidents and take "responsible measures" over them at the talks.
As for the north side′s proposal for opening the high-level military talks, they came out with an irrelevant proposal for holding the talks between the minister of the People′s Armed Forces and their minister of Defense or those between the chiefs of the General Staff of the two sides, departing from their earlier stand.
When the north side charged that their unilateral attempt to change the level of the talks, given that an agreement was reached on holding high-level military talks, was an abnormal and immoral behavior, they made an unreasonable excuse, saying "a vice-minister of Defense of the south side is not a high-level person in military authority." They thus threw another hurdle in the way of reaching an agreement.
When the north side urged the south side to clinch the discussion of technical procedures, even sitting all night, and open the full-dress talks in 3-4 days at the preliminary talks, they asserted their opening around late in February under the pretext of the January 15th of the lunar calendar, the folk holiday, and the time to prepare for the talks.
They deliberately put off the time for the resumption of the north-south dialogue under this or that pretext, prompted by the foolish calculation that in case late February is fixed as the time for those talks when Key Resolve and Foal Eagle joint military exercises targeting the north are slated to take place, the responsibility for the rupture of the talks can naturally be shifted onto the north side.
The communique went on: The puppet forces ran the whole gamut of obstructions and finally made the north-south military dialogue abortive though it was arranged with much effort thanks to the DPRK′s proposal for wide-ranging dialogue and negotiations. This was prompted by their sinister scenario to torpedo the processes for peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and the improvement of the north-south relations and stick to their avowed policy of confrontation against the DPRK to the last.
They responded to the Korean People′s Army′s proposal for the talks not out of their true interest in the dialogue but prompted by their ulterior design to dodge the blame for being an arch criminal going against the wishes of the nation and the trend of the times and link the "Cheonan" incident and the Yonphyong Island shelling incident to the DPRK come what may.
It is the ulterior intention of the group of traitors to reject the north-south dialogue itself, while pretending to be interested in the dialogue, in a bid to bar the six-party talks from being resumed and stem the trend of dialogue of the countries around the Korean Peninsula and keep the phase of confrontation and clash going on. Through this they seek to tone down the public voices at home and abroad demanding them make a switchover in their vicious policy of confrontation towards the DPRK.
The puppet forces did not hesitate to commit hoodlumism unprecedented in the history of the north-south talks. They unilaterally walked out of the conference room, finally turning down the just assertion of the north side for defusing the tensions and refraining from military actions which may be regarded as provocations by each side, and breached even the elementary courtesy of seeing the delegation of the other side off.
The army and people of the DPRK do not feel any need to deal with the group of traitors any longer now that they do not wish to see the north-south relations improved but totally reject the dialogue itself.
