By KIM KWANG-TAE
Associated Press
SEOUL, South Korea – South Korea has accepted a North Korean proposal to hold high-level defense talks following months of soaring tensions, in a breakthrough announced after the U.S. and China urged them to improve communication.
Any talks could prove significant if Seoul and Pyongyang can put aside military and political animosity and lay the groundwork for a resumption of long -stalled international negotiations on ending North Korea’s nuclear programs. Lower-level defense talks last year foundered over the issue of the sinking of a South Korean naval ship in disputed waters.
The agenda this time should include North Korean assurances that it will take “responsible measures” over the ship sinking and the shelling of a South Korean island and not provoke further conflict, said Chun Hae-sung, a spokesman for South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which is in charge of inter-Korean affairs.