남북 "빠른 시일내 동•서해지구 軍 통신선 복구키로" 합의
Our starting point is once again the first working-level military talks held by the two Koreas for the first time in almost a decade.
It was agreed Seoul and Pyongyang will reconnect more communication channels.
Park Hee-jun starts us off with the meeting that was brisk but produced visible results. South and North Korea have agreed to restore military communication lines,... as part of their implementation of the April 27 Panmunjom Declaration,... which includes reducing military tension and building trust.
The agreement came during the two Koreas’ military working-level talks on Monday at the Customs, Immigration, and Quarantine Office in Paju, Gyeonggi-do Province,... just south of the inter-Korean border.
Each delegation was made up of five members-- the South Korean delegation led by Army Colonel Cho Yong-geun, and the North Korean delegation by Colonel Om Chang-nam.
The two sides have agreed to quickly restore the West Sea channel,...which was severed in 2016 after the shutdown of the inter-Korean Kaesong Industrial Complex.
It was restored in January for the PyeongChang Winter Olympics,... but at present, it's only capable of phone communication.
The two Koreas also plan to reconnect the East Sea communication lines.
The channel was suspended in 2011 amid military tensions-- and later destroyed in a wildfire.
They will negotiate further on the equipment needed for its reconstruction and the timetable for the process in follow-up discussions.
Once the lines are restored,... they will help the two Koreas avoid possible military conflict caused by misunderstandings.
These talks are the first of their kind in more than seven years,... since the deadly attack on the South Korean warship Cheonan in 2010 and the shelling of Yeonpyeong-do Island later in the same year.
South and North Korea will work out the details of the restoration through the exchange of documents,... and future inter-Korean military talks, through the exchange of official notices.
Seoul's Ministry of National Defense says it will take the necessary measures by cooperating with the relevant departments,... to follow through with the agreement as soon as possible.
Park Hee-jun, Arirang News.
