North Korea accuses South of 'insincerity' at high-level military talks

SEOUL, Oct. 16 (UPI) -- An initial meeting of senior military leaders from South and North Korea on Wednesday yielded little progress.

The meeting, held in the truce village of Panmunjom, "was carried out in an earnest atmosphere," said Kim Min-seok, a spokesman for the South Korean Defense Ministry. The objective of the closed-door meeting was for both countries to examine ways to relieve inter-Korean military tensions.

"Because this was the first such meeting," Kim acknowledged, "positions from each side could not be narrowed down."

Pyongyang expressed frustration Thursday about the pace of the new talks, accusing Seoul of "being rigid and inactive to its suggestions aimed at easing tensions" and threatened to cancel its proposed high-level talks with Seoul expected to be held in late October.

"It is an undeniable reality of the time that the inter-Korean high-level talks face risk of being thwarted," said Pyongyang. "If (South Korea) sincerely hopes to improve the inter-Korean relations, it should accept our proposals."

Wednesday's gathering was the first of its kind since 2007 and was convened amid heightened tensions following a series of recent military encounters, including exchanges of fire over an incursion by a North Korean vessel at the de facto maritime border in the Yellow Sea on Oct. 7 and the deployment of balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang pamphlets across the border on Oct. 10.