Bosworth urges N. Korea to improve communication with S. Korea

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SEOUL, March 9 (Yonhap) -- A high-level U.S. envoy expressed regret Monday over
Pyongyang cutting a main military communication channel with South Korea to
protest the U.S. and South Korea's joint military training.
"Obviously, this is something that we regret," Stephen Bosworth told reporters
after a series of meetings with President Lee Myung-bak and other top-ranking
officials.
The envoy, a former U.S. ambassador to Seoul, emphasized that improving
communication between the two Koreas is "a key component of the six-party effort
to reduce tensions and to bring about the denuclearization of the Korean
Peninsula."
He reiterated Washington's warning that North Korea should not escalate tension
by firing a long-range missile.
Eighty South Korean workers remain stranded in an inter-Korean joint industrial
complex in Kaesong, a North Korean border town, because the North pulled the plug
on its military communication line earlier in the day.
lcd@yna.co.kr
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