Military officials from both North and South Korea met with figures from the UN Command to discuss ways in which the nations could efficiently demilitarize the border, and ease tensions along the demilitarized zone.
Discussions centered on early practical issues like reducing military personnel on either side, while withdrawing weapons and some of the guard posts. Officials say they are encouraged by the progress made at the talks.
These are attempts to dial back the military presence along the demilitarized zone as other deals are reached between the two Koreas. In previous talks, the two sides agreed to work toward restoring rail and road links between the two.
The demilitarized zone was established in 1953 with the armistice for the Korean War. The expectation is that when a peace deal is finalized, the zone will ultimately be dismantled and replaced with a proper normalized border between the two.
The US State Department expressed disquiet about this, however, saying that President Trump has “been very clear” that such moves can only follow complete denuclearization, and that the US opposes anything that would amount to easing sanctions.
Here’s the DMZ; note the tunnels.
https://i0.wp.com/www.rokdrop.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/DMZ-image.png?resize=624%2C499
the danger —
North Korea has dug tunnels underground, giving Kim Jong-un the ability to send 30,000 troops an hour beneath his country’s border with South Korea for a stealth attack. Fears have been raised that as many as 84 secret war tunnels have been built, with some boasting sleeping areas, a railway and enough space to move tanks.
but then —
Built for Invasion, North Korean Tunnels Now Flow With Tourists — South Korea says the four passages, the so-called Tunnels of Aggression, were built to move thousands of North Korean troops quickly and covertly underneath the Demilitarized Zone and onto South Korean soil for an invasion, an accusation Pyongyang has long denied. But in the decades since their discovery, some of the tunnels have found new life as a tourist destinations. Thousands of Koreans and foreign visitors explore these odd relics of a frozen conflict, one that is now stressed by renewed tensions and in the spotlight ahead of President Trump’s visit to the Peninsula on Tuesday.
https://static01.nyt.com/images/2017/11/05/world/05northkorea-tunnels-06/merlin_129677744_2406d0f0-2ee6-4522-ba31-c6e3af48230c-master768.jpg
Even though I am not an admirer of either government, N. or S., this is heart-warming for anti-warrers and President Trump can rightly claim that he set this in motion.
Incidentally, South Korea has the second-largest budget surplus in percentage of its GDP of all countries (Norway is tops). It also has a healthy positive trade surplus. That helps because the President of South Korea does not have to worry much about the economy of his nation. It is booming. The addition of cheap worker-ants from the North is alluring.
President Moon is on a seven-day tour of Europe where he is expected to update leaders in Paris, Rome and Brussels on the rapidly thawing relations between Seoul and Pyongyang. Moon said the U.N. Security Council needed to play an “active role” in helping convince the North Korean leader to fully abandon his atomic arms program. However Moon is getting the cold shoulder from France’s Macron and UK’s May on sanctions relief.
North Korea has suspended nuclear and missile tests, shut down and destroyed its Punggye-ri nuclear test site in May, and has agreed to shut one of the country’s main missile testing and launch sites, the Tongchang-ri facility.
So we have an impasse. The US has said that North Korea sanctions remain until complete denuclearisation. North Korea will not see any economic sanctions lifted until it has demonstrated “complete denuclearisation”, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said.
But the UN sanctions resolutions contain language about sanction adjustment based upon DPRK actions. for example:
UNSC Res 2371
The Security Council,
29. Affirms that it shall keep the DPRK’s actions under continuous review and is prepared to strengthen, modify, suspend or lift the measures as may be needed in light of the DPRK’s compliance, and, in this regard, expresses its determination to take further significant measures in the event of a further DPRK nuclear test or launch; (OP49 of UNSCR 2321)
30. Decides to remain seized of the matter. (OP50 of UNSCR 2321)
And the Panmunjon Joint Declaration, which the Koreas and the US has agreed to follow, contains language that hostile acts should be ceased. (Sanctions is a hostile act, of course.)
“South and North Korea agreed to completely cease all hostile acts against each other in every domain, including land, air and sea, that are the source of military tension and conflict. In this vein, the two sides agreed to transform the demilitarized zone into a peace zone in a genuine sense by ceasing as of May 1 this year all hostile acts and eliminating their means, including broadcasting through loudspeakers and distribution of leaflets, in the areas along the Military Demarcation Line.”
Whatever happens, peace is never an option when the USA is allowed any input.