SEOUL, (Reuters) – Top negotiators from North and South Korea talked through a second consecutive night and into this morning in a marathon bid to defuse tensions that have brought the peninsula to the brink of armed conflict.
The talks at the Panmunjom truce village inside the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) began on Saturday evening, shortly after North Korea’s deadline passed for Seoul to halt anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts or face military action.
They broke up before dawn on Sunday and restarted that afternoon, with the bitter rivals on high military alert after an exchange of artillery fire on Thursday.
The delegates were “continuing talks for long hours in the midst of the critical situation” on the peninsula, Min Kyung-wook, a spokesman for South Korea’s presidential Blue House, told reporters on Monday, without giving further details.
The United Nations, the United States and the North’s lone major ally, China, have all called for calm.
Yoo Ho-yeol, a professor of North Korean studies at Korea University in Seoul, said the unusually long session was a good sign.
