(Reuters) — Korean defense ministry said on Tuesday (August 25) both North and South Korea would begin rolling back heightened military postures at noon (0300 GMT), after the two Koreas reach reached agreement early on Tuesday to end a standoff involving an exchange of artillery fire.
Under the accord reached in the very early hours of Tuesday after more than two days of talks, North Korea expressed regret over the recent wounding of South Korean soldiers in landmine blasts and Seoul agreed to halt anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts, both sides said.
North Korea also agreed to end the “semi” state of war it had declared. The two sides will hold follow-up talks to discuss a range of issues on improving ties, the joint statement said.
“Our military will keep the alert level at its highest until Seoul time 12:00 p.m. (0300 GMT). As mentioned before, it will take time for North Korea to redeploy their military forces, which were placed at the front line in accordance with its quasi-state of war. Therefore, we will lower our alert level and rearrange our readiness posture step by step in relation to the level of North Korea’s threat,” said the defence ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok at a regular news briefing.
“Our military will maintain its military readiness and continuously be prepared for any further provocation by North Korea,” Kim said.
The ministry added that loudspeaker broadcasts will formally halt and the North’s state of war status will be lifted at 0300GMT.
The standoff reached a crisis point on Thursday (August 20) when the North fired four shells into the South, according to Seoul, which responded with a barrage of artillery fire.
Pyongyang then made its ultimatum that Seoul halt the broadcasts by Saturday afternoon or face military action, but on that day the two sides agreed to hold talks between top level aides to the leaders of the two countries.
Even as talks were proceeding, North Korea deployed twice the usual artillery strength at the border and had around 50 submarines away from base, the South’s defence ministry said. South Korea had also increased its military readiness.
Some of the North’s submarines were detected returning to base, Kim, the South’s defence ministry spokesman said.
Seoul and Pyongyang have remained technically in a state of war since the 1950-53 Korean war ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, and hopes for improved relations have repeatedly been dashed over the years.