Two Koreas open historic military talks

[ze_dscherman]

Senior South Korean military officers opened talks with their counterparts in the North on
Wednesday in the first ever general-level meeting between the two sides of the world's last Cold War frontier.

Officers from the two sides sat together at 10 a.m. (0100 GMT) at the resort of Mount Kumgang, on the northern side of the heavily fortified Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) that bisects the Korean peninsula and separates some 1.8 million troops, South Korean defence ministry officials said.

Five-member delegations headed by South Korean Commodore Park Jung-hwa and North Korean Brigadier General An Ik-san were scheduled to hold about two hours of talks focusing on avoiding naval clashes in the Yellow Sea west of the Korean peninsula.

SNIP

South Korean officials voiced the hope Wednesday's talks will mark the start of regular high-level contact between the two militaries aimed at reducing tension and building confidence.

More: http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1084907832320&p=1012571727102

Congratualions to the Koreans. Way to go!

[FleshCartoon]

1. So everyone wants peace on Earth...

...except George W. Bush?

[psychopomp]

2. Yes, Gee Dumb is not too happy about this

The U.S. voiced its strong disapproval of Japan's PM Koizumi's trip to NK last weekend, too, and did what it could to stop it.

[mulethree]

9. win-win?

If we don't want him to have any success then we oppose the talks.

But if we oppose his talks, then he is elevated by his distance from us, which makes success more likely.

If we were to support his talks then we would actually be sabotoging them, so we'd only support him if we were in fact hoping for failure.

But they know that we know that they know that we know

so ...

Ahh I get it - its all a plot to increase sales of headache pills!

[Judi Lynn]

3. Looks as if the whole world is simply going to have to work around Bush

He has decided to make himself Imperial Ruler, and will fight everyone who doesn't approve, if he can.

It's GREAT news to know the two Koreas are talking. Thank you for your post. It's also great to know Japan's talking to N.K., too.

He may well unite most of the world before he drags his sorry bleep back to his ranch to do some more of that important brush clearing.

[keithyboy]

4. Get the US military troop out, and the two Koreas will be free to unite

aganist the US. The true results of war...

[whosinpower]

5. What the Koreans want

Is re-unification. My nephew worked over there teaching and the people of south Korea are not a bit frightened of the North. Those are family members on the others side of the demilitarized zone. They want the North and South to be reunited.

If that happens, the US loses its military base there. That is why Bush is unhappy with the current situation.....god help him if PEACE actually broke out.

[Just Me]

6. Sounds like an awesome development,...

,...and the neocons can take absolutely NO credit for it!!! HA-HA-HA!

[bemildred]

7. Potentially excellent, yes.

Further evidence of waning US influence.

[Bandit]

8. Just don't let the US get involved and you guys may work it all out

Get Bush* involved and bombs will probably start dropping.