Another round of working-level military talks between the two Koreas began this morning at the Tongil-gak building on the North Korean side of Panmunjom.
Following up on the progress made during general-level talks in July,... the two sides are expected to discuss disarming the Joint Security Area in the DMZ, the joint excavation of war remains in the DMZ and the withdrawal of troops at guard posts on a trial basis.
The results of today's talks are likely to be included in the military agreement, which is expected to be officially signed by President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the upcoming inter-Korean summit next week.
On a related note, for the first time in history, South and North Korea will be running a joint liaison office together... and it will be within the Kaesong Industrial Complex, a factory park the two Koreas ran together until February 2016.
The grand opening will take place on Friday with 50 to 60 attendees from each side of the border.
South Korea's unification minister and his counterpart will be signing and exchanging an agreement on running the contact office.
Vice-ministerial-level officials from the two Koreas will be heading the office. South Korea will be appointing the vice unification minister Chun Hae-sung as its head and North Korea plans to appoint its vice-head of the reunification committee as Chun's counterpart. They will serve as representatives whenever meetings take place.
The joint liaison office can serve as the foundation for sustainable and institutionalized inter-Korean relations.
Seoul says the two Koreas aim to ultimately set up resident representative offices in each other's capitals.
Moving on, this year's Seoul Defense Dialogue had its official opening ceremony this morning at Westin Chosun Seoul, with hundreds of vice-ministerial officials and experts from over 50 countries.
During the opening ceremony, South Korea's defense minister Song Young-moo stressed that the Korean peninsula is facing a great transformative period, and said current efforts for establishing perpetual peace shouldn't be stopped, so that the past 70 years of conflicts and hostility should never be repeated.
Under the theme of "Sustainable Peace: from conflict to cooperation," the three-day forum cover diverse security issues, including confidence building in Northeast Asia and maritime security.
Source: Arirang News
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