South Korea has formally proposed military talks with its northern neighbour to address escalating border tensions and clarify their shared demarcation line. The move comes amid growing concerns over repeated incursions by North Korean soldiers, which Seoul fears could lead to an armed confrontation.
South Korean military officials report firing warning shots on multiple occasions to repel North Korean troops who have crossed the military demarcation line. These incidents have reportedly increased since North Korea began bolstering its front-line defences last year. Pyongyang, however, denies any border violations, asserting its soldiers operated within its own territory and threatening unspecified retaliation.
Kim Hong-Cheol, South Korea’s deputy minister for national defence policy, confirmed the offer on Monday, stating the talks aim to avert accidental clashes and de-escalate the volatile situation.
Kim said that the North’s border intrusions were likely caused by the rivals’ different views on the border line, because many of the military demarcation line posts established at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War have been lost.
It’s unclear if North Korea would accept South Korea’s calls for talks, because it’s been shunning all forms of dialogue with South Korea and the U.S. since its leader Kim Jong Un’s high-stakes nuclear diplomacy with U.S. President Donald Trump fell apart in 2019. Some observers say South Korea’s offer for talks was part of efforts by its liberal government led by President Lee Jae Myung to reopen communication channels with North Korea.
Last year, Kim declared that North Korea was abandoning its long-standing goals of a peaceful unification between the Koreas and ordered the rewriting of the North’s constitution to mark the South as a permanent enemy. South Korea’s military said that it has since detected North Korea adding anti-tank barriers and planting more mines at border areas.
The Koreas’ 248-kilometer-long (155-mile-long), four-kilometer-wide (2½-mile-wide) border is one of the world’s most heavily armed frontiers. An estimated 2 million mines are peppered inside and near the border, which is also guarded by barbed-wire fences, tank traps and combat troops on both sides. It’s a legacy of the Korean War, which ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.
