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North and South Korea start military-level talks | | Topical issues | 08-02-2011, 16:03 |  37  1042 |
|  North and South Korea have started official talks less than three months after North Korean artillery bombardment of a South Korean island killing four people and bringing the peninsula to the brink of all-out war, - “The Telegraph” speaks about this.
The low-level dialogue between colonel-level military officials marks a rapid cooling of tensions between the rival Koreas after the regime of Kim Jong-il abruptly offered unconditional talks to Seoul last January, following a year of military attacks and bellicose rhetoric.
If successful, the ice-breaker talks could pave the way for defence minister-level engagement later this year, followed by a possible resumption of the stalled six party nuclear disarmament talks.
However, analysts have cautioned against high expectations from the dialogue, as Seoul and Washington have pledged not enter into substantive negotiations with Pyongyang until it shows it is sincere about giving up its nuclear arsenal.
The meeting, which lasted several hours, took place in Panmunjom, a cluster of blue huts the Demilitarized Zone that has separated the two Koreas since the end of the Korean War in 1953.
Officially released footage showed North Korean Colonel Ri Son-kwon patting his Southern counterpart Col. Moon Sang-gyun, on the shoulder as they shook hands before the negotiations began.
"Can [the talks] go well today?" Col. Moon asked his North Korean counterpart in a choreographed moment for the cameras. "Yes, they will go well," replied the South's Col. Ri.
South Korean-based analysts and media believe that North Korea is using the talks as a pretext to win back the economic aid that has been cut off since its illegal nuclear weapons test in 2009, plunging its already bankrupt economy deeper into crisis, - informs “The Telegraph”.
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