SpaceWar.com - Your World At War
Koreas, UN Command agree to demilitarise part of border
Seoul, Oct 22 (AFP) Oct 22, 2018
The two Koreas and the US-led United Nations Command agreed Monday to demilitarise a section of the heavily fortified border dividing the peninsula by this week, as a diplomatic thaw gathers pace.

"The three parties agreed to carry out measures to withdraw firearms and guard posts at the Joint Security Area (JSA) by October 25," Seoul's defence ministry said in a statement following trilateral talks.

They will then conduct a "three-way joint verification" for the following two days, it added.

The JSA, also known as the truce village of Panmunjom, is the only spot along the tense, 250-kilometre (155-mile) frontier where troops from the two countries stand face to face.

It was a designated neutral zone until the "axe murder incident" in 1976, when North Korean soldiers attacked a work party trying to chop down a tree inside the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), leaving two US army officers dead.

South and North Korea -- which are technically still at war -- agreed to take measures to ease military tensions on their border at a meeting in Pyongyang last month between President Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong Un.

Earlier this month, the two sides began removing landmines at the JSA -- which is now often used for talks between the two Koreas -- as part of the deal, which was confirmed "complete" at Monday's talks.

The September summit was the third this year between the leaders as a remarkable rapprochement takes hold on the peninsula.

Moon has advocated engagement with the isolated North to nudge it toward denuclearisation.

Monday's talks were the second meeting of a trilateral JSA commission made up of the two Koreas and the UN Command, which is included as it retains jurisdiction over the southern half of the JSA.

Its chief, US general Vincent Brooks, told reporters in August that as UN commander he supported initiatives that could reduce military tensions.

But he added that as commander of the combined US-South Korean forces -- one of his other roles -- he felt there was a "reasonable degree of risk" in Seoul's plans to dismantle guard posts near the DMZ.


ADVERTISEMENT




Space News from SpaceDaily.com
EU clears European satellite giant SES bid for US rival Intelsat
Aethero Secures $8.4M to Build the Next Generation of Space-Based Computing and Autonomous Spacecraft
Axiom-4 mission launch scrubbed as SpaceX detects leak in Falcon 9 rocket

24/7 Energy News Coverage
Scientists develop electronic skin to give robots the feeling of human touch
Nairobi startup's bid to be 'operating system for global South'
Russia to build Kazakhstan's first nuclear power plant

Military Space News, Nuclear Weapons, Missile Defense
Hegseth defends $961.6B Defense Department budget request
Iran's nuclear programme, Netanyahu's age-old obsession
Israel, Iran resume missile exchange, threaten more attacks

24/7 News Coverage
Nations advance ocean protection, vow to defend seabed
Greenland ice melted much faster than average in May heatwave: scientists
Value oceans, don't plunder them, French Polynesia leader tells AFP



All rights reserved. Copyright Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.