Military officers from the U.N. Command (UNC) and North Korea will meet again Tuesday to arrange general-level talks over the deadly sinking of a warship blamed on the communist country, officials at the UNC said Monday.
Last Thursday, colonel-level officers from the two sides held their first meeting since the March sinking that killed 46 South Korean sailors. The
talks, held at the border village of Panmunjom, lasted about 90 minutes.
The new round of talks precedes the so-called "two-plus-two" meeting between foreign and defense ministers of South Korea and the United States
in Seoul the next day. The ministers are expected to plan a series of joint military exercises and discuss ways to strengthen security ties as their
response to the North's sinking.
The North's state media reported after Thursday's meeting that Pyongyang had demanded its own inspectors be allowed to come to Seoul to verify evidence presented by a multinational investigation that incriminated it.
Seoul has dismissed the demand, saying the issue should be handled within the framework of the Korean armistice agreement that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.
North Korea had originally rejected a proposal by the UNC to hold military talks, but changed its stance just ahead of the U.N. Security Council statement earlier this month that condemned the sinking without directly blaming the North.
Separate from the multinational probe, the UNC conducted its own probe into whether the sinking violated the armistice agreement. The results of the probe have not been disclosed.
North Korea and the U.S.-led UNC launched the general-level talks in 1998
as a channel to ease tensions. If held, it would be the 17th of its kind,according to the UNC.
About 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea, a legacy of the Korean War.