Seoul seeks talks with Pyongyang on proposed joint fishing zone

Posted on : 2007-10-15 11:19 KST Modified on : 2007-10-15 11:19 KST

South Korea seeks talks with North Korea in December on establishing a joint fishing zone near their disputed western sea border to follow up on their agreement at the second-ever inter-Korean summit earlier this month, Seoul officials said Monday.

The plan comes amid a renewed dispute over the Northern Limit Line (NLL), which was drawn unilaterally at the end of the three-year Korean War in 1953 by the U.S.-led U.N. command to prevent South Korean and U.N. naval forces from violating the line.

President Roh Moo-hyun last week claimed it is "misleading" to call the western NLL a border, sparking heated debates in the country.

Critics note the line has served as the de facto border and that Pyongyang has acknowledged it is a maritime border, though the North recently started to demand it be redrawn.

Conservatives have slammed Roh for his remarks, noting dozens of South Korean soldiers were killed in two bloody naval skirmishes in 1999 and 2002 while trying to block North Korean warships from breaching the NLL.

The decision for the follow-up talks was made at the first meeting of a government task force on implementing the agreements at the 2007 inter-Korean summit, a Unification Ministry official said Monday.

"The government plans to propose establishing a joint committee for establishment of the so-called 'special economic cooperation zone in the West Sea' at the upcoming talks between the prime ministers of the two Koreas" that could be held as early as next month, the official said, asking not to be identified.

After the prime ministerial meeting early next month, South Korea is seeking talks between the defense ministers of the two countries followed by a meeting of an already-established joint committee on economic cooperation before the end of next month.

"The government hopes to start getting some tangible results from as early as December," an official said.

SEOUL, Oct. 15 (Yonhap)

Most viewed articles