Talks in the village of Panmunjom, in the DMZ between North and South Korea, continued deep into Sunday night and into Monday morning, bringing them intoa third day with no signs of any resolution of the latest round of tensions between the two nations.
Tensions had been stepping up for a couple of weeks, with a dispute over a border land-mine leading South Korea to reinstall loudspeakers to broadcast propaganda into the North. This continued up to Thursday, when North Korean forces took a shot at one of the loudspeakers.
South Korea responded with heavy shelling of several targets in North Korea, and ruled out calls to remove the loudspeakers, saying they were broadcasting “important information about the south’s development” into North Korea.
With both sides openly talking about war, the Panmunjom talks began Saturday, with officals from both sides trying to come up with some understanding that would cool things down a bit. Marathon talks on Saturday continue into Sunday, and after a brief recess they resumed, with Sunday talks going into Monday.
The two nations have been in a state of war since 1950, and go through such blow ups on a fairly regular basis. Though there is always the threat of such an incident escalating further, they usually reach some sort of understanding and return to relative calm.