Koreas exchange accord on avoiding railway clashes

Koreas exchange accord on avoiding railway clashes

SEOUL (AFP): South and North Korean military officials on
Tuesday made a breakthrough in attempts to prevent clashes during
the rebuilding of a cross-border railway, Southern defense
ministry officials said.

The ministry said the two sides had exchanged draft accords on
averting unintentional fighting when restoring the railway and
building a new four-lane road alongside.

The agreements called for immediate contacts to be established
if there was a clash between troops or injuries to construction
workers.

The De-Militarized Zone for the railway is considered one of
the world's most high-risk trouble spots and the South Korean
army has warned tight cooperation will be needed during de-mining
and construction operations.

"The North's position was that the two sides should move fast
in the issue of reconnecting the Kyungi Line," an official of the
ministry told journalists however.

The two sides, who met on the South Korean side of the
Panmunjom border truce village, also discussed details for
managing the links through the four-kilometer-wide zone.

Agreement to rebuild the railway has been one of the key
outcomes of the new reconciliation between the rival Koreas.
The railway will reconnect Seoul and Pyongyang and from there go
up to the city of Shinuiju on the North Korean border with China.

The two Koreas, which split in 1945 and fought a devastating
three-year war from 1950, also agreed to build a new road
alongside the railway between Seoul and the North's border city
of Kaesong.

South Korea's Hyundai Group is building an industrial park in
Kaesong to produce export goods.

Despite fears of wrangling at the talks, a defense ministry
spokesman said: "Today's talks were held in a business-like
atmosphere."

He stressed the discussions were free from politics. At the
first round of talks last week, the North strongly protested
against an alleged territorial infringement in the Yellow Sea by
South Korean naval ships last month.

And on Monday, the South Korean defense ministry released a
White Paper policy document which said North Korea was still the
South's "main enemy" despite their reconciliation moves.

The leaders of the rival states agreed to start work on the
railroad and take other peace initiatives at a historic summit in
Pyongyang in June.

"Despite the rapid thaw in inter-Korean relations since the
June summit, we maintain the concept of a primary enemy," said
Maj. Gen. Cha Young-Koo, director general of the ministry's
Policy Planning Bureau.

He said the ministry has seen no significant change in the
North's offensive deployment of troops along the border and its
military power.

The paper said North Korea has deployed more than 55 percent
of its key forces in forward bases near the border.

It also said the United States, which keeps 37,000 troops in
the South, would deploy up to 690,000 troops on the Korean
peninsula if a new war broke out.

The third round of the military talks will take place on Dec.
21 on the North Korean side of the Panmunjom border truce
village.