Reuters: North, South Korea check work to ease tension in 'milestone' step
SEOUL (Reuters) - North and South Korean officials inspected work to ease tension on their militarised border on Wednesday, checking on the demolition of bunkers and probing for secret tunnels, despite scant progress on persuading the North to give up nuclear arms.
The two sides destroyed 11 guard posts within 1 km (0.6 mile) of each side of the heavily fortified border and withdrew equipment and personnel late last month, as a first step in a military pact reached in September between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
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Update #1: Troops cross North-South Korea Demilitarized Zone in peace for 1st time ever -- CBS/AP
Update #2: North and South Korean soldiers enter each other's territory -- AFP
WNU Editor: This is a huge first step. It may seem small .... to verify the removal of a few guard posts .... but it is going to be used as a template for future talks, and how to verify joint agreements that will ease tensions on the DMZ.
4 comments:
I am shocked at the change in behavior from North Korea. Trump and Moon deserve thanks from the world in defusing what has been hatred based upon silliness ever since 1950. Where it goes from here nobody knows. But I do know this, I see no Democrat waiting in the wings having the needed strength of character to face down the Kims. Not Spartacus, not Kamela, not Bernie and his Bros nor Creepy Joe Biden.
Approximately 15 months ago we were on the verge of war, a war we that us being able to win it would have been problematic at best. While I suspected that Trump has a level of competence that US leaders have not had for many decades and the change in behavior is not surprising the speed is a bit surprising. I suspect the reasons for these changes are several fold. 1.) During the campaign South Korea was specifically called out by candidate Trump as an abuser of American largess. This sent a message loud and clear to South Korea and their leaders that America could not nor should it expect to paly the role of South Korea's b!tch boy for an indefinite period of time. This put South Korea and its leadership on notice that it might be in their best interest to try and seek peace with North Korea. 2.)China is well positioned to be a dominant power if not the dominant power for the next century or longer. Getting dragged into a war based upon the actions of North Korea threatens to undermine this. I'm sure there are some in China who would very much like to "lock in" the gains they've made over the last 25 to 30 years. A bellicose North Korea runs counterproductive to such plans and ambitions. 3.)Trump, for all of his flaws as every human has, is a stable and focused individual who has decades of experience as an international business man who, in this role, will have needed to have demonstrated a track record that he can be trusted to honor his agreements when possible. In contrast, Trump's opposition as evidenced by how they handled this whole process and how they have handled relations with major world powers such as China and Russia in general indicate a general untrustworthiness and instability. As such, the parties involved are highly motivated to get agreements in place that are workable sooner rather than later.
I think there are other factors at work but I think this is a major part of what is going on. As examples of democrat/media instability and outright stupidity or worse, 1.)the recent staged incident by Ukraine was used to undercut very important negotiations with Russia, and 2.)the recent arrest of a Chinese executive right as Trump, Xi, and their teams are in the midst of important negotiations. There are other examples I could cite.
While I hope that the optimism of all the commenters is well placed. I have a few issues.
Namely that this is a side show. All of it. The main goal of denuclearizing the peninsula has taken steps backwards or (more-likely) never made real progress in the first place.
The DPRK is still building launch sites. It is Still operating missile factories, and is in all likelihood still enriching Uranium.
This boarder stuff, while nice, doesn't mean much when the north couldn't really hope to take the south without use of said nuclear weapons. This is not the 1960s anymore.
I am not going to say that we are getting played, because we probably aren't. The whole reason these events are being played up is that both sides want to be able to blame the other when/if things go bad.
All that said. I really do hope things work out well.
There is going to be an invasion in one country i bet a million dollars. They will act like the other side.
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