North and South Korea in Long Talks to Defuse Ongoing Tension
The two Koreas' top negotiators talked for two consecutive nights until Monday morning in an effort to ease the ongoing tension that almost resulted to armed conflict. Kim Kwan-jin and Hong Yong-pyo, the president's national security adviser and the Unification Minister, represented South Korea. On the other hand, Hwang Pyong-so and Kim Yang-gon - Kim Jong-un's top military aide and inter-Korean affairs official - represented Pyongyang.
The first meeting at the Panmunjom village - where truce talks usually take place - in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) started on Saturday evening and ended before dawn the next day, lasting for 10 hours. Senior officials from the north and south met after the ultimatum passed for Seoul to stop propaganda broadcasts or deal with military action.
They talked again on Sunday afternoon until Monday morning while each nation is on high military alert. China (North Korea's ally), the United States and the United Nations all called for a truce.
Min Kyung-wook, a spokesperson for the presidential Blue House, said to reporters that the officials were "continuing talks for long hours in the midst of the critical situation". However, there were no further details on the discussions. There were no media organizations present during the meetings as well.
According to Yoo Ho-yeol, a professor who studies North Korea at Seoul's Korea University, the sessions' long duration was a positive indication.
"They are not talking for the sake of a breakdown but for the sake of agreement. There must be a lot of fine-tuning and convincing between the two parties".
On the other hand, the defense ministry of South Korea said on Sunday that North Korea deployed twice its normal artillery strength and over 50 submarines while delegates from the two nations were discussing at the truce village in DMZ.
Optimists also emphasized that the North's use of 'Republic of Korea' - the South's official title - instead of mocking terms could mean hope.
Despite ending their conflict in 1953, North and South Korea were still "technically" at war because they didn't agree on a peace treaty.