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NUKEWARS
N. Korea warns South over upcoming drill with US
by Staff Writers
Seoul (AFP) Aug 13, 2014


N. Korea offers proposal to reduce tensions: Indonesia
Jakarta (AFP) Aug 13, 2014 - North Korea has come up with a "concrete proposal" that could reduce tensions in the region, Indonesia's foreign minister said Wednesday after talks with his counterpart from the North.

"During the discussion, I received one very specific, concrete proposal from the (North Korean) side for us to communicate to the other side," Marty Natalegawa told reporters.

He refused to elaborate but added: "I think it will be very useful to explore to try to create a new momentum to reduce the tensions in the area."

Natalegawa would not say what he meant by "the other side", but later made reference to the long-stalled six-party talks with nuclear-armed North Korea.

The process involves the two Koreas, China, the United States, Japan and Russia. The talks, which offer the North diplomatic, security and economic concessions in return for nuclear disarmament, were last held in December 2008.

The North announced the following April it was quitting the forum and resuming its nuclear enrichment programme.

Natalegawa suggested that the proposal put forward by Ri Su-Yong, who took up the role of North Korean foreign minister in April, involved issues that "have been preoccupying all of us".

"The issue of nuclear proliferation, the issue of ballistic missile launches, the issue of military exercises," he said.

"The proposal is a very good one, it's a very constructive one."

Natalegawa did not say when the proposal might be presented to the "other side".

Relations between North and South Korea have been tense in recent months, with Pyongyang angered by Seoul's annual joint military exercises with the United States.

Pyongyang has been playing hawk and dove recently, carrying out an extended series of missile tests since late June while making occasional peace overtures.

Indonesia has generally had strong ties with the North since the 1960s, when the country's two founding fathers, Indonesia's Sukarno and North Korea's Kim Il-Sung, developed a good relationship.

Natalegawa last year paid a visit to the North.

Jakarta has often played a mediating role in international disputes, and has based its foreign policy on the principle of having a "million friends and zero enemies".

North Korea warned South Korea on Thursday that failure to cancel an upcoming military drill with the United States would push the two sides "to the brink of war".

In a lengthy statement that offered no direct response to Seoul's recent offer of high-level talks, the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea (CPRK), which handles cross-border ties, issued a long list of measures the South should implement if it was "sincere" about improving relations.

The joint military drill scheduled to begin Monday "should be cancelled unconditionally", the statement said, adding that failure to do so would push the "Korean peninsula to the brink of a war and increase the danger of a nuclear war".

The annual Ulchi-Freedom Guardian exercise, aimed at testing combat readiness for a North Korean invasion, is scheduled to begin August 18.

Although largely played out on computers, it involves tens of thousands of South Korean and US troops.

Pyongyang's anger over the drill is likely to prompt some extended sabre rattling during the visit to South Korea of Pope Francis, who arrives in Seoul Thursday for five days.

The pope is due to conduct a special inter-Korean "reconciliation" mass on the same day that the Ulchi Freedom exercise begins.

"US domination and interference should be terminated on the Korean peninsula," the CPRK said, demanding the withdrawal of all US forces from South Korea.

The statement was carried by the North's official KCNA news agency ahead of the 69th anniversary Friday of the Korean peninsula's liberation from Japanese rule.

Earlier this week, South Korea had proposed a fresh round of high-level talks with the North to discuss another possible reunion for families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.

But the CPRK offered no direct response, though it noted that the South Korean authorities should demonstrate their desire for improved ties "through their practical actions, not talking only".

Seoul's Unification Ministry, which handles cross-border affairs on the South side, had proposed a meeting at the border truce village of Panmunjom on August 19.

An earlier round of talks in February had marked the highest-level official contact between the two Koreas for seven years, and led to a family reunion later the same month.

But since then tensions have escalated, with the North conducting an extended series of missile tests after the South pushed ahead with other joint military drills involving US forces.

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