31 July 2018•Update: 31 July 2018
By Alex Jensen
SEOUL
Military generals from both Koreas held talks at their heavily guarded border Tuesday as they aimed to ease tensions in line with April's summit agreement reached by respective leaders President Moon Jae-in and Chairman Kim Jong-un.
It was the second general-level meeting since Moon met Kim -- military talks on June 14 had been the first of their kind in over a decade.
Just like last month, South Korea's Major Gen. Kim Do-gyun faced North Korea's Lt. Gen. An Ik-san.
Kim began their latest meeting by calling for "earnest deliberations" in order to ensure a good outcome.
His counterpart An recognized that "all Koreans, both the North and South, cherish our talks," vowing to please them "by discussing issues heart to heart".
The two sides have made cautious progress in recent weeks, avoiding hostile actions as promised in April while re-establishing border communications.
Proposals still to be achieved include disarming the border area and searching for Korean War remains, in addition to the wider goals of ensuring the North's denuclearization and signing a formal peace treaty.
Despite the positive mood at the border, Pyongyang's state-run media was in a critical mood Tuesday.
North Korea's Uriminzokkiri propaganda website criticized Seoul for its stance of adhering to global sanctions until the North denuclearizes.
"Like water and fire cannot go together, the thought that sanctions and dialogue can go hand in hand does not make sense," it stated.
Meanwhile, the North Korean ruling party's Rodong Sinmun newspaper accused South Korea's liberal government of "jumping on the bandwagon of foreign powers" by failing to reverse the decisions by Seoul's last two conservative administrations to shut down cooperation projects.
