The South and North Korean navies established radio contact for the first time yesterday in a major step towards easing tension on the Cold War's last frontier, officials said.
Warships from the two sides successfully communicated using a common radio frequency, flags and light signals along a disputed sea border in the Yellow Sea as part of new measures to prevent accidental clashes, navy officials said.
PHOTO: AP
"Navy ships from both sides have been in radio contact from 00:00 GMT, sailing along the sea border off the west coast," a South Korean navy spokesman said.
The first exchange of radio messages was made near Yeonpyeong Island when navy ships from both sides sailed close to the sea border. Similar contacts were made at four other locations for two hours.
The unprecedented contact comes a day before the two Koreas hold a series of joint events to mark the signing of a landmark rapprochement agreement at a summit between them in 2000.
A North Korean civilian delegation arrived in South Korea yesterday to attend a marathon and other reconciliation events. Pyongyang will also send a government delegation to Seoul this week for a symposium on a railway project linking the peninsula with Europe.
The 2000 summit prompted a thaw between the North and South but ties have been disrupted by naval skirmishes in the rich fishing grounds off the western coast.
Since 1999 dozens of casualties have been reported on both sides. The last clash in June 2002 left six South Korean sailors dead.
Clashes usually occur when fishing boats from one side cross an unmarked maritime border into the other side while chasing fish.
A temporary sea border, called the Northern Limit Line, was drawn in 1953 at the end of the three-year Korean War, but North Korea has never recognized it, insisting the sea border should be redrawn.
Yesterday's contact followed a military deal on June 4 to reduce tensions along the heavily fortified and tense border.
In terms of the accord, the two sides are from midnight Monday to stop propaganda broadcasts along the 248km land border.
They have also agreed to dismantle all propaganda materials aimed at enticing opposing soldiers to defect.
South Korea has about 100 propaganda billboards along the land border. North Korea has erected 200 huge signs and drawings praising their leader and communism or denouncing the US.
The border is dotted with loudspeakers, slogans, electronic displays, posters and religious facilities.
The rapprochement comes at a sensitive time, with an international diplomatic drive under way to encourage the Stalinist North to abandon its nuclear ambitions.
North Korea has a 1.1 million-strong force against South Korea's 690,000 troops, who are backed by 37,000 US soldiers.
The US, however, plans to reduce its troop levels on the peninsula and move US forces away from the border to locations south of Seoul. The plans have triggered security jitters in South Korea.
SUPPORT: Elon Musk’s backing for the far-right AfD is also an implicit rebuke of center-right Christian Democratic Union leader Friedrich Merz, who is leading polls German Chancellor Olaf Scholz took a swipe at Elon Musk over his political judgement, escalating a spat between the German government and the world’s richest person. Scholz, speaking to reporters in Berlin on Friday, was asked about a post Musk made on his X platform earlier the same day asserting that only the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party “can save Germany.” “We have freedom of speech, and that also applies to multi-billionaires,” Scholz said alongside Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal. “But freedom of speech also means that you can say things that are not right and do not contain
Pulled from the mud as an infant after the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 and reunited with his parents following an emotional court battle, the boy once known as “Baby 81” is now a 20-year-old dreaming of higher education. Jayarasa Abilash’s story symbolized that of the families torn apart by one of the worst natural calamities in modern history, but it also offered hope. More than 35,000 people in Sri Lanka were killed, with others missing. The two-month-old was washed away by the tsunami in eastern Sri Lanka and found some distance from home by rescuers. At the hospital, he was
Two US Navy pilots were shot down yesterday over the Red Sea in an apparent “friendly fire” incident, the US military said, marking the most serious incident to threaten troops in over a year of US targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Both pilots were recovered alive after ejecting from their stricken aircraft, with one sustaining minor injuries. However, the shootdown underlines just how dangerous the Red Sea corridor has become over the ongoing attacks on shipping by the Iranian-backed Houthis despite US and European military coalitions patrolling the area. The US military had conducted airstrikes targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels at the
MILITANTS TARGETED: The US said its forces had killed an IS leader in Deir Ezzor, as it increased its activities in the region following al-Assad’s overthrow Washington is scrapping a long-standing reward for the arrest of Syria’s new leader, a senior US diplomat said on Friday following “positive messages” from a first meeting that included a promise to fight terrorism. Barbara Leaf, Washington’s top diplomat for the Middle East, made the comments after her meeting with Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus — the first formal mission to Syria’s capital by US diplomats since the early days of Syria’s civil war. The lightning offensive that toppled former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad on Dec. 8 was led by the Muslim Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is rooted in al-Qaeda’s
RSS