Members of the South and North Korean delegations to the fourth preparatory meeting for high-level inter-Korean talks shaking hands on Nov. 15, 1989, at North Korea’s Tongilgak pavilion in the truce village of Panmunjom. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Feb. 13 (Korea Bizwire) – North Korea demanded during inter-Korean talks in 1990 that South Korea dismantle a barricade it had installed along their border, calling it “a disgrace” to the Korean people, according to an official dossier declassified Thursday.
The information was disclosed in the unification ministry’s official documents recording inter-Korean talks held between September 1984 and July 1990, which total 2,266 pages and include separate minutes from such talks.
The ministry declassified and released such records after keeping them secret for more than 30 years due to their sensitivity.
The document showed that during high-level inter-Korean talks in 1990, the North Korean side demanded that the South dismantle “a concrete wall” along the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas, accusing it of passivity in advancing their ties.
The North was referring to an anti-tank barricade that the South Korean military had installed for defense purposes at the time of the talks.
Paek Nam-sun, then the head of the North Korean delegation, bristled at the structure during a meeting on Jan. 31, 1990, noting, “It’s nothing less than a disgrace to the (Korean) people to have an artificial wall installed at a time when having a Military Demarcation Line within a nation is heartbreaking enough.”
Paek demanded that South Korea express its intent to end its exclusionary policy by dismantling the wall, in response to the South’s claim that the structure was being used as an excuse to delay progress of the talks.
The scene demonstrates North Korea highlighting the unity of the two Korean peoples, in stark contrast to its current attitude of antagonizing the South.
Since April last year, the North has installed anti-tank structures and mines along the DMZ, and blown up roads and railways connecting the two sides, in line with leader Kim Jong-un’s 2023 order to designate South Korea as its primary foe.
In another meeting in 1989, Paek protested the South’s use of terms like “high-level official talks” and “prime ministers’ talks,” arguing they sounded as if the two Koreas were different countries and did not sufficiently reflect the Korean people’s commitment to unification.
(Yonhap)
