[Aju News DB ]
With their cross-border hotlines turned off, a bizarre method of communication was adopted this week between South and North Korea at the border truce village of Panmunjom which has been under watch by foreign surveillants.
Panmunjom is dotted with a cluster of structures for conferences in a small joint security area in the middle of the demilitarized zone which bisects the Korean peninsula.
Border guards from both sides should stay on their own side across an invisible border line, supervised by officers from neutral nations under a truce accord. US troops are on standby around the clock in a nearby camp.
In Panmunjom and other areas, the two Koreas have maintained liaison offices and hotlines for an exchange of messages and personnel, but all cross-border exchanges and contact remained cut off due to high military tensions caused by North Korea's nuclear and missile programs.
With no working channel of communication, a South Korean official turned up Thursday in Panmunjon, reading a message on the proposed repatriation of eight North Korean fishermen rescued in southern waters this week.
On the northern side, a North Korean soldier came close and taped it in his surveillance camcorder, the South's unification ministry said, adding the message called for the repatriation of North Korean fishermen on Monday across the eastern sea border.
"We believe our oral message has been delivered because a North Korean soldier filmed it," ministry spokesman Jeong Joon-hee told reporters.
There has ben no reply yet from Pyongyang, but Seoul will go ahead with its planned repatriation, he said, admitting South Korea would leave it to chance and wait in the sea for the arrival of a North Korean vessel.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
