North, South Korea set up military hotlines

DORASAN, South Korea (Reuters) – North and South Korea
successfully tested a hotline on Wednesday aimed at helping
avoid naval confrontations in the Yellow Sea by allowing direct
contact between the two militaries.

The two Koreas, which remain technically at war, agreed
last month to confidence-building steps, including setting up
hotlines and completing the removal of propaganda signs on both
sides of the heavily militarized border dividing the peninsula.

The military communications office, set up just south of
the Demilitarized Zone, consists of phones and fax machines
directly linked to a similar office on the North’s side of the
DMZ.

“How is the transmission rate? Your transmission has come
through fine,” South Korea Navy officer Choi Don-rim said by
telephone to North Korean soldiers during a test.

Reflecting their difficult ties, the two Koreas do not have
direct postal services and have only recently established the
first private phone line in 60 years.

“This marks the completion of measures to avoid clashes in
the Yellow Sea,” Choi told reporters.

Naval clashes in rich fishing grounds off the Yellow Sea in
past years have killed or wounded scores of sailors on both
sides and severely strained ties between the neighbors.

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun has said the potential
for such clashes remains the biggest threat to stability on the
Korean peninsula.

The majority of the North Korea’s 1.2 million soldiers are
deployed near the border against South Korea’s 690,000 troops.
The United States reinforces the South with about 32,000
troops.

North and South Korea remain technically at war because the
1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a full peace treaty.