SKorea Proposes Talks With North       10/23 06:25

   South Korea on Friday proposed military talks with North Korea to resolve 
disagreements about where their border lies and prevent accidental clashes in 
frontline areas, seeking to ease tensions after recent landmine blasts injured 
three South Korean soldiers.

   SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- South Korea on Friday proposed military talks 
with North Korea to resolve disagreements about where their border lies and 
prevent accidental clashes in frontline areas, seeking to ease tensions after 
recent landmine blasts injured three South Korean soldiers.

   It's unclear whether North Korea will agree to talks. Authoritarian leader 
Kim Jong Un has taken a hard line toward Seoul and has suspended virtually all 
dialogue and cooperation with the South in recent years. Meanwhile, North Korea 
has been adding mines, barbed wire fences, tactical roads, anti-tank walls and 
other fortifications to what's already one of the world's most heavily armed 
borders.

   South Korea's military has said North Korean soldiers crossed the border's 
military demarcation line 50 times this year during fortification work, and 
that it responded with warning shots and broadcasts.

   The South's military made a proposal for similar talks in November that was 
ignored by the North. Seoul has shown greater urgency to ease tensions after 
the Sept. 21 mine blasts at the border, which the South's military concluded 
were caused by North Korean mines planted south of the military demarcation 
line.

   "Our Ministry of National Defense officially proposes to North Korean 
authorities that South-North military talks be held to mutually confirm the 
exact location of the ground military demarcation line between the South and 
the North, discuss the restoration of military communication lines, and discuss 
measures to prevent accidental clashes in border areas," Kim Hong-Cheol, South 
Korea's deputy minister for defense policy, said in a televised statement 
Friday.

   He said the South was also open to three-way talks involving the U.S.-led 
United Nations Command.

   The proposal came days after Kim Jong Un's powerful sister visited 
front-line areas where North Korean troops are reinforcing the border. During 
her visit, she renewed a threat to retaliate against any South Korean 
provocation aimed at the fortification work.

   Kim Yo Jong also said the North planned to activate border loudspeakers for 
anti-Seoul propaganda broadcasts, a psychological warfare tactic long used by 
both Koreas, and has placed unspecified "new counter means" on alert along the 
border. She blamed the South for firing warning shots and broadcasting warnings 
toward North Korean soldiers fortifying the border under what she called a 
false pretext that they were crossing the demarcation line.

   South Korean officials have said North Korea's recent border activities have 
highlighted the Koreas' disagreement over exactly where the military 
demarcation line lies. The line was drawn up under the 1953 armistice that 
stopped the fighting of the Korean War, and some decades-old boundary markers 
have been lost over time.

   However, South Korean Defense Minister Kang Shin-chul has said the location 
of last month's mine blasts was not in a disputed area. The North has denied 
responsibility for the incident and dismissed Seoul's demand to apologize and 
remove its remaining mines.

   Kim Hong-Cheol, the South Korean military official, said leaving the dispute 
over the military demarcation line unresolved would increase the risk of 
accidental clashes because troops from both sides act on their own 
understanding of the line. "The recent increase in North Korean activities 
along the military demarcation line, as well as our warning broadcasts and 
warning shots, is also related to this situation," he said.

   While visiting front-line areas with Kim Yo Jong on Wednesday, North Korean 
Army Marshal Pak Jong Chon denied that North Korean soldiers were breaching the 
border during fortification work, saying "our army knows where our borderline 
is better than any others."

   He accused the South of making "deliberate, premeditated and absurd" claims 
to shift blame over the rising tensions and threatened an "overwhelming 
response" to South Korean provocations.