South Korea offers talks with North to prevent accidental armed clash at border

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South Korea offers talks with North to prevent accidental armed clash at border

2025-11-17 20:11 Last Updated At：20:20

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea proposed talks with North Korea to clarify the rivals' border line and ease military tensions, saying Monday that North Korean soldiers' repeated border intrusions have raised worries about an armed clash.

South Korea's military says it has been firing warning shots to repel North Korean troops who violated the border's military demarcation line numerous times since they began works to boost front-line defenses last year. North Korea has denied its soldiers' alleged border breaches and threatened unspecified responses.

Kim Hong-Cheol, South Korea's deputy minister for national defense policy, said Monday that the country was offering military talks to prevent an accidental armed clash and lower tensions with North Korea.

He said that the North's border intrusions were likely caused by the rivals' different views on the border line, because many of the military demarcation line posts established at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War have been lost.

It's unclear if North Korea would accept South Korea's calls for talks, because it's been shunning all forms of dialogue with South Korea and the U.S. since its leader Kim Jong Un's high-stakes nuclear diplomacy with U.S. President Donald Trump fell apart in 2019. Trump has repeatedly expressed his desire to resume diplomacy with Kim, but the North Korean leader has suggested that he could meet Trump again only if Washington withdraws the denuclearization of North Korea as a precondition for talks.

Some observers say that South Korea's offer for talks was part of efforts by its liberal government led by President Lee Jae Myung to reopen communication channels with North Korea. In August, Kim's sister and senior official Kim Yo Jong called the Lee government's outreach a “sinister intention” to blame Pyongyang for strained relations.

Last year, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared that his country was abandoning its long-standing goals of a peaceful unification with South Korea and ordered the rewriting of the North’s constitution to mark the South as a permanent enemy. South Korea's military said that it has since detected North Korea adding anti-tank barriers and planting more mines at border areas.

The Koreas' 248-kilometer-long (155-mile-long), four-kilometer-wide (2½-mile-wide) border is one of the world’s most heavily armed frontiers. An estimated 2 million mines are peppered inside and near the border, which is also guarded by barbed-wire fences, tank traps and combat troops on both sides. It’s a legacy of the Korean War, which ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

Zelenskyy heads to London for talks with European allies on peace plan and security

LONDON (AP) — President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met French, German and British leaders in London on Monday as Kyiv’s European allies try to strengthen Ukraine’s hand in thorny talks on a U.S.-backed plan to end the Russia-Ukraine war.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer gathered with Zelenskyy, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the British leader’s 10 Downing St. residence.

Starmer shook hands with Merz on the doorstep of the residence, ignoring a reporter’s shouted questions. Macron arrived a few minutes later and also posed briefly for photographers with Starmer on the doorstep.

Zelenskyy arrived some 15 minutes after the others. As he entered the building with Starmer, he gestured toward the resident cat, Larry, who was loitering on the doorstep.

Zelenskyy said late Sunday that his talks with European leaders this week in London and Brussels will focus on security, air defense and long-term funding for Ukraine’s war effort. The leaders are working to ensure that any ceasefire is backed by solid security guarantees both from Europe and the U.S. to deter Russia from attacking again.

U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators completed three days of talks on Saturday aimed at trying to narrow differences on the U.S. administration’s peace proposal.

Zelenskyy said in a post on Telegram that talks had been “substantive” and that National Security and Defense Council Secretary Rustem Umerov and Chief of the General Staff Andrii Hnatov were traveling back to Europe to brief him.

A major sticking point in the proposal is the suggestion that Ukraine must cede control of its eastern Donbas region to Russia, which illegally occupies most but not all of the territory. Ukraine and its European allies have balked at the idea of handing over land.

Starmer said he “won’t be putting pressure” on Zelenskyy to accept a peace settlement.

“The most important thing is to ensure that if there is a cessation of hostilities, and I hope there is, it has to be just and it has to be lasting, which is what we will be focused on this afternoon,” he told broadcaster ITV.

In an exchange with reporters on Sunday night, U.S. President Donald Trump appeared frustrated with Zelenskyy, claiming the Ukrainian leader “hasn’t yet read the proposal.”

“Russia is, I believe, fine with it, but I’m not sure that Zelenskyy’s fine with it," Trump said before taking part in the Kennedy Center Honors in Washington. "His people love it, but he hasn't read it."

Trump has had a hot-and-cold relationship with Zelenskyy since riding into a second White House term insisting that the war was a waste of U.S. taxpayers’ money. Trump has also repeatedly urged the Ukrainians to cede land to Russia to bring an end to the nearly four-year conflict.

The European talks follow the publication of a new U.S. national security strategy that alarmed European leaders and was welcomed by Russia.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the document, which spells out the administration’s core foreign policy interests, was largely in line with Moscow’s vision.

Speaking with journalists on Monday, Peskov said that the Kremlin welcomed the document’s focus on developing constructive relations with Russia.

“The nuances that we see in the new concept certainly look appealing to us,” he told reporters. “It mentions the need for dialogue and building constructive, friendly relations. This cannot but appeal to us, and it absolutely corresponds to our vision. We understand that by eliminating the irritants that currently exist in bilateral relations, a prospect may open for us to truly restore our relations and bring them out of the rather deep crisis.”

The document released Friday by the White House said the U.S. wants to improve its relationship with Russia after years of Moscow being treated as a global pariah and that ending the war is a core U.S. interest to “reestablish strategic stability with Russia.”

The document also says NATO must not be “a perpetually expanding alliance,” echoing another complaint of Russia’s. It was scathing about the migration and free speech policies of longstanding U.S. allies in Europe, suggesting they face the “prospect of civilizational erasure” due to migration.

Starmer’s government has declined to comment on the American document, saying it is a matter for the U.S. government.

Russian forces continued to attack Ukraine Monday as diplomatic efforts continued.

Russian drones struck a residential high-rise in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Okhtyrka overnight, injuring seven people, the head of the regional administration, Oleh Hryhorov, wrote on Telegram. He said that the building suffered extensive damage.

Elsewhere, in the northern city of Chernihiv, a Russian drone injured three people when it exploded outside a residential building, regional head Viacheslav Chaus said. The attack also damaged a kindergarten, domestic gas pipes and cars.

Ukraine’s Air Force said Monday that Russia fired a total of 149 drones across the country overnight, of which 131 were neutralized and 16 more struck their targets.

Meanwhile, Russian air defenses destroyed 67 Ukrainian drones overnight, Russia’s Ministry of Defense said Monday. The drones were shot down over 11 Russian regions, it said.

Novikov reported from Kyiv, Ukraine.