2nd DPRK-U.S. military meeting set for late July
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The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the U.S.-led United Nations Command (UNC) have agreed to hold a second round of their meeting on the "Cheonan" warship case around July 20, the official news agency KCNA reported on Thursday.
Earlier on Thursday, DPRK-U.S. military senior colonel-level working contact was made in the truce village of Panmunjom, and the two sides discussed technical matters such as the date and venue of talks and the formation of delegations for opening the DPRK-U.S. military general-level talks.
They all agreed to adopt "probing the truth behind 'Cheonan' case in an objective and scientific way" as the agenda of the talks, said the report.
"If the U.S. forces side is truly interested in the settlement of the case, there is no reason for it to refuse the DPRK's proposal which was to send the inspection group to South Korea," it said.
"The DPRK side will closely follow how the U.S. forces side will handle the issue of the NDC (the National Defense Commission of the DPRK) inspection group's field investigation, strongly urging the U.S. forces side holding the prerogative of the supreme command over the South Korean army to fully fulfill its responsibility," the report added.
The meeting came after the United Nations Security Council issued a presidential statement condemning the attack on the warship, which killed 46 South Korean sailors. Pyongyang said it was "satisfied" with the statement, which stopped short of directly naming it as a culprit.
As part of a trust-building measure, the command and the DPRK have held 16 general-level talks since 1998, and the latest round was held in March 2009.
South Korea announced in May that the "Cheonan" warship was torpedoed by a submarine of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), but the DPRK immediately denied involvement.
