U.N. Command attends talks with North Korea

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U.N. Command attends talks with North Korea
By Jimmy Norris, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Wednesday, March 4, 2009

SEOUL — For the first time in seven years, general officers from the United Nations Command and the North Korean army held official talks at Panmunjom on Monday, according to a U.N. Command news release.

U.N. Command spokesman Dave Palmer said North Korean requested the talks Saturday in hope of reducing tension on the peninsula.

In late January, citing the South’s "confrontational policies," the North scrapped long-standing military agreements between the two Koreas and said it would no longer recognize the Northern Limit Line, a maritime border in the Yellow Sea.

In response to the move, and to the North’s threat to test a mid-range missile, U.N. Command commander Gen. Walter Sharp called on Pyeongyang "to stop provocations and act like a responsible country" at a February luncheon with reporters in Seoul.

A Yonhap news story said the North has made accusations of U.N. Command provocations, including repeated trips by U.S. soldiers to places as close to 20 yards from the military demarcation line to take pictures of the North Korean military.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=61074