Two Koreas to hold working-level military talks on Monday

(ATTN: RECASTS lead, para 2; ADDS North Korean newspaper's commentary in final four
paras)
SEOUL, Oct. 25 (Yonhap) -- South and North Korea will hold working-level talks
early next week to discuss outstanding military matters, Seoul's defense ministry
said Saturday.
The meeting is expected to be held at the Customs, Immigration and Quarantine
office on South Korea's west coast near the city of Paju, and is scheduled for 10
a.m. on Monday, according to the ministry.
Army lieutenant colonels will represent the two sides in talks expected to touch
on outstanding issues, including those related to changing the existing hotline
system between the two countries. Pyongyang first proposed the talks on Friday.
There are presently nine military hotlines, but one connection in the important
western sector has been inoperable since May.
The two sides have since relied on other lines that run through the eastern
coast, although most conversations have been limited to routine affairs like
movements over the joint control area in the demilitarized zone (DMZ).
The defense ministry said there is consensus on both sides on upgrading the
hotline links, which can be used in emergency situations to prevent regional
clashes from escalating into full blown conflicts. There has, however, been no
detailed talks to change the communication link.
The DMZ is the world's most heavily fortified demarcation line, with over a
million troops guarding the 248 kilometer-long border that divides the Korean
Peninsula.
Some sources in the ministry said that the North may have called the meeting to
protest moves by South Korean groups that have sent leaflets containing
derogatory information about the North Korean leadership.
"South Korean representatives will be ready to discuss all contingencies and
listen to what the North has to say," a military spokesman said.
Last month, officials from the two Koreas met for the first inter-Korean military
dialogue in eight months, but the talks ended abruptly without any significant
progress after the North's delegates warned of "grave consequences" for the
spreading of propaganda leaflets by South Korean civic groups.
Pyongyang has cut off all dialogue with the South since Seoul's Lee Myung-bak
administration was inaugurated in February, vowing to take a firmer stance
against the communist North than its liberal predecessors.
October's meeting was the first inter-Korean dialogue since Lee took office. The
last round of military talks were held on Jan. 25.
In spite of the scheduled military talks, North Korea's state media continued its
harsh criticism of the South Korean government.
North Korea is especially angry over Lee's disavowal of a 2007 summit agreement
reached between his predecessor, Roh Moo-hyun, and the North's leader, Kim
Jong-il. The agreement calls for massive South Korean investment in several
economic projects in the North.
"The inter-Korean relations ... faced a catastrophic crisis all of a sudden and
there prevails on the Korean Peninsula an extremely dangerous situation in which
a war may break out any moment," the North's Rodong Sinmun said in a commentary.
The article was carried by Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency on
Saturday night.
"Needless to say, this is a direct product of the Lee group's anachronistic and
traitorous conception of confrontation and wild ambition for aggression as it is
going reckless to invade the North by force of arms," it said.
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