Seoul asks Pyongyang to move artillery

Updated June 17 2018 - 2:11pm, first published 2:06pm
South Korea has asked North Korea to move its long-range artillery away from the border.
South Korea has asked North Korea to move its long-range artillery away from the border.

South Korea has proposed that North Korea move its long-range artillery away from the heavily fortified border in an effort to reduce tensions, government sources say. During last week's rare cross-border military talks, the first in more than a decade, Seoul made a series of suggestions, including relocating the artillery pieces to areas 30-to-40km away from the military demarcation line separating the two Koreas, the insiders said. The two sides held the talks to follow up on the Panmunjom Declaration from the April 27 inter-Korean summit at the truce village, which calls for joint efforts to alleviate military tensions and "practically eliminate the danger of war". "We conveyed our position to the North that in light of consultations between the North and the United States over the denuclearisation issue, we have to craft measures to drastically reduce military tensions by removing practical threats," a source said on condition of anonymity. Seoul's defence ministry later denied that it proposed the movement of the North's artillery farther north. According to a 2016 South Korean defence white paper, the North has 14,100 artillery pieces, including 5500 multiple rocket launchers, a majority of which have been deployed near the border and can easily target Seoul. During Thursday's talks, the two Koreas agreed to completely restore their western and eastern military communication lines.

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