DPRK blames ROK for collapsed military talks

Xinhua, February 10, 2011

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said the preliminary inter-Korean military talks failed because of South Korea's "deliberate breach," according to the official KCNA news agency Thursday.

South Korea insisted on adopting "responsible measures over 'Cheonan' case and the shelling incident on Yonphyong island, ensuring no more similar incident and showing sincerity of denuclearization" as the topics of high-level military talks, said the KCNA.

However, DPRK's proposals "to clarify a view on the 'Cheonan' case and the Yonphyong Island shelling and defuse military tension on the Korean Peninsula" as the agenda of the high-level military talks were rejected by South Korea.

Pyongyang hoped the high-level military talks could be held as soon as possible while Seoul insisted on holding it in late February, when the United States and South Korea were to launch joint military exercises. South Korea thought the DPRK would react to the planned drill, thus laying the responsibility of destroying the talks on the DPRK, said the statement.

South Korea ignored the consensus inside and outside of the country and kept its anti-DPRK policy, it added.

"Our military and people cherish peace more than anyone but will never beg for it," said the statement. "It is the traditional response of our military and people to meet dialogue with dialogue and confrontation with confrontation."

As South Korean authorities did not want to improve the north-south relations and reject dialogue thoroughly, the DPRK would not "sit down with it face to face," it added.

The two sides did not fix the date of next talks on Wednesday after the two-day colonel-level military talks, the first major inter-Korean contact following the sinking of South Korean warship "Cheonan" in March 2010 and the exchange of artillery fire on Yonphyong island in November 2010.