(LEAD) S. Korea urges N. Korea to accept dialogue offer

(ATTN: UPDATES with background info, expert's view from 7th para; ADDS photos, byline)
By Lee Chi-dong

SEOUL, July 21 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's defense ministry on Friday pressed North Korea to hold bilateral military talks on easing border tension, as Pyongyang remained unresponsive to Seoul's latest dialogue offer.

The meeting was proposed for the day at the truce village of Panmunjom inside the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in what would be their first military dialogue in almost three years.

But the North has kept mum on it, since the South delivered the overture Monday through media, with all formal inter-Korean hotlines severed.

"The North Korean side has not issued a position so far. Accordingly, it has become virtually difficult to open the talks today," the ministry said in a statement.

It stressed the urgency of reducing military tensions and restoring a military communication channel between the two Koreas for the peace and stability of the peninsula.

"The Ministry of National Defense once again calls on the North to respond positively to our offer as soon as possible," the statement read.

On Monday, the South also suggested humanitarian talks with the North on Aug. 1 to arrange the resumption of dayslong reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War. The North also has not replied.

The South's overtures of talks with the North marked the first by the left-leaning Moon Jae-in administration, seeking to engage the nuclear-armed communist neighbor after a decade of animosities.

The North, ruled by the young and unpredictable leader Kim Jong-un, has taken a series of provocative acts, including nuclear tests and ballistic missile launches. The South's previous conservative governments were tough on Pyongyang.

During a Berlin speech earlier this month, Moon extended an olive branch to Pyongyang, proposing a set of initial measures to ease inter-Korean tensions separate from denuclearization talks that would directly involve the United States, China and other regional powers.

South Korean officials say they won't undermine the U.N.-led sanctions on the North, adding eased military tension on the peninsula would be conducive to efforts for a diplomatic resolution to the nuclear issue.

North Korea watchers here pointed out the Kim regime seems to be interested in such a military meeting as it wants to curb the cross-border spread of propaganda leaflets and loudspeaker-using broadcasts.

In fact, the North has not rejected the dialogue offer.

The North seems to be prudent ahead of the start of the Ulchi-Freedom Guardian (UFG), an annual joint defense excise between South Korea and the U.S., in the middle of next month, according to Koh Yu-hwan, a professor at Dongguk University in Seoul.

"The North may believe that it would be better to talk (with the South) after the end of the UFG from a longer perspective," he said.

lcd@yna.co.kr
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