North Korea, US-led UN Command to meet this week to discuss South warship sinking

NKorea, US-led UN Command to meet over sinking

SEOUL, South Korea — Military officers from North Korea and the American-led U.N. Command will hold rare talks Tuesday on the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship, the command said, their first meeting since the incident dramatically raised tensions on the Korean peninsula.

An international investigation concluded North Korea torpedoed the vessel Cheonan, killing 46 sailors. Pyongyang flatly denies it was responsible and has warned any punishment would trigger war.

The U.N. Command, which oversees an armistice that ended the Korean War in 1953, separately investigated the March 26 sinking to find out if it violated the truce, though findings of that probe have not been disclosed.

Late last month, the command proposed military talks with North Korea to review its findings and initiate dialogue.

The North first rejected the offer, criticizing the U.S. for allegedly trying to meddle in inter-Korean affairs under the name of the U.N.

But Pyongyang changed its position last week and proposed working-level talks at the Korean border village of Panmunjom to prepare for higher-level talks on the sinking. The U.N. Command said in a statement Monday that the sides will meet at 10 a.m. (0100 GMT) Tuesday.

U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters Monday that the forum allows the militaries to talk about violations in the armistice.

“Clearly, in our view, the sinking of the Cheonan was a profound violation of the existing armistice,” Crowley said. He wouldn’t talk about the agenda of the meeting.

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported Monday that the North is expected to reiterate its accusation that South Korea and the U.S. faked evidence to link it to the sinking, which occurred near the tense inter-Korean sea border.

The U.N. command, for its part, will likely demand Pyongyang refrain from any provocations and punish those responsible for the sinking, Yonhap said. The report did not cite any sources.

The North said Friday that it decided to agree to the military talks because South Korea had rebuffed its calls for direct inter-Korean discussions on the issue.

North Korea and the U.N. Command launched general-level talks in 1998 as a measure to lessen tension between the sides, the statement said. The meeting Tuesday would constitute the 17th of its kind, it said.

The U.S. stations 28,500 troops in South Korea, a legacy of the Korean War, which ended in an armistice that has never been replaced with a permanent peace treaty.

The U.N. Security Council on Friday approved a statement that condemned the sinking but stopped short of directly blaming North Korea. The next day, the North said it will make efforts to resume stalled disarmament talks on its nuclear program and conclude a peace treaty that could formally end the Korean War, a sign that the regime is satisfied with the U.N. Security Council’s less stringent presidential statement.

The signing of a peace treaty is a coveted goal for North Korea, which has argued it was forced to develop atomic weapons to cope with U.S. nuclear threats. The U.S. has repeatedly said it has no intention of attacking the North.

Crowley said North Korea must stop provocative actions and show a willingness to abide by past disarmament pledges before the United States will agree to resume long-stalled six-nation talks meant to rid North Korea of its nuclear programs.

“We are not willing to talk for the sake of talking,” Crowley said.

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Associated Press writer Foster Klug in Washington contributed to this report.