N.Korea, UNC to resume dialogue

By Hao Zhou

North Korea and the US-led United Nations Command (UNC) will hold a third round of military talks today about the sinking of a South Korean warship, two days after the end of a major war game denounced by Pyongyang.

"Representatives of the Korean People's Army and the UNC Military Armistice Commission will hold a colonel-level meeting in Panmunjom Saturday at 10 am," the UNC said in a statement Thursday, according to the Seoul-based Yonhap News Agency.

It is a "positive phenomenon" that both sides can keep a channel for talk amid tensions, said Lü Chao, director of the Center of South Korea studies at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences. But he doesn't expect any fruit from the talks, as no signs of a concession have been seen from either side.

Cross-border tensions have risen sharply since South Korea and the US accused the North in late May of torpedoing the South Korean warship Cheonan, killing 46 soldiers.

US and South Korean forces Wednesday wrapped up a four-day naval and air exercise - the first in a series - that they said was intended to warn the North against further attacks.

"These defensive, combined training exercises are designed to send a clear message to North Korea that its aggressive behavior must stop," said General Walter Sharp, the top US military commander in South Korea, in a statement Thursday.

North Korea vehemently denies any involvement in sinking the Cheonan corvette.

It urged the US and South Korea to "remove the source of war," saying the "deliberate and premeditated maneuvers" are part of the two allies' efforts to "provoke a second Korean war at any cost," Pyongyang's state-owned Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Wednesday.