[Joint Press Corps.]
SEOUL -- The two Koreas held the first round of military talks to implement a peace agreement signed by their leaders after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un returned home from a historic summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in Singapore.
It was the first inter-Korean military talks since they met last in December 2007. The five-member South Korean delegation was led by Major General Kim Do-gyun and the North's delegation by Lieutenant General An Ik-san.
"We will do our best so that we can lead a new era of peace on the Korean peninsula," Kim told reporters, adding the meeting would focus on how to implement agreements reached at the inter-Korean summit in April while discussing a timetable for the meeting of South and North Korea defense chiefs.
The military meeting came after Trump made a sudden overture in Singapore that he would consider stopping "provocative and expensive" war games between the two traditional allies. Trump's remarks have caused controversy as conservative groups support a strong security alliance to deter any aggression.
There are about 28,000 US troops stationed in South Korea. Washington and Seoul insist their joint military exercises are purely defensive in nature, but Pyongyang has condemned them as provocative rehearsals for an attack on the nuclear-armed country.
Military officials in Seoul said earlier that Thursday's meeting in Panmunjom would cover the restoration of cross-border military communication lines, a hotline between their military leaders and ways to ease hostilities along the heavily armed border.
In their summit in April, the two Koreas agreed to cease all acts of hostilities against the other side, work on establishing a permanent peace regime that would end confrontation for more than six decades, and hold frequent military dialogue.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in has proposed a joint project to recover the remains of soldiers who were killed during and after the 1950-53 Korean War and buried in the demilitarized zone that splits the Korean peninsula.
reporter
Lim Chang-won
cwlim34@ajunews.com
