The meeting took place at Tongilgak, a North Korean administrative building in the truce village of Panmunjom on the inter-Korean border, but ended without so much as setting a date for a new round of military talks.

The South Korean delegation including delegation chief Col. Moon Sung-mook (center) heads to a meeting venue in the truce village of Panmunjom on the inter-Korean border, where inter-Korean military talks were held on Monday./Yonhap

”The North took issue with South Korean civic groups handing out anti-communist leaflets near the demilitarized zone and South Koreans taking banned items into the Kaesong Industrial Complex and Mt. Kumgang tourist spots,” said Col. Moon Sung-mook, the chief of the three-member South Korean delegation to the talks. Pyongyang complains South Koreans bring prohibited items such as cell phones, GPS devices and South Korean newspapers or magazines into the industrial park and the Mt. Kumgang resort and this “agitates” among North Korean soldiers and civilians.

The South Korean delegation explained Seoul is already taking steps to prevent such practices by calling on activists to refrain from distributing anti-communist leaflets, and asked for North Korea’s understanding of the diversity that exist in the South, Moon said.

The delegations from Seoul in turn raised the vexed issue of the North Korean military guaranteeing safe passage for long-reconnected inter-Korean railways and roads. They also asked for meeting of the two Koreas’ defense chiefs. The North said it was “still willing” to guarantee safe passage but added the conditions have to be right. It also demanded to re-draw the maritime border between the two Koreas. “We agreed to conduct reviews of the issues raised during the talks and discuss them later,” Moon said.

(englishnews@chosun.com )