South Korea: North proposes holding military talks

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
North Korea has proposed holding military talks with South Korea in what would be the first official contact between the countries since Seoul's new conservative government took office in February, a defense official said on Friday. The surprise offer came amid heightened tensions over North Korea's decision to abandon a disarmament-for-aid pact and to begin reassembling its nuclear reprocessing plant in Yongbyon. Earlier this week, North Korea ordered UN nuclear monitors to leave the country and said it would reinsert nuclear material into a plutonium-producing facility within a week, sparking alarm among its neighbors. The North sent a message Thursday proposing the talks, and the South Korean government was discussing whether to accept the offer, an official at South Korea's Defense Ministry said late Friday. The message was Pyongyang's first official proposal for talks since South Korean President Lee Myung-bak's administration took office in February with a pledge to get tougher on the North. The North responded by suspending all government-level talks with the South.