韩国呼吁朝鲜接受军事会谈的提议

South Korea called on North Korea Friday to “quickly accept” its offer to hold military talks in a bid to easy rising border tensions on the Korean Peninsula and eventually to dismantle North Korea's nuclear weapons program.

Pyongyang has yet to officially respond to Seoul's proposal for the military meeting and for separate talks next month to resume the temporary reunion of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.

South Korea's Defense Ministry said in a statement Friday that it has become difficult to hold the meeting Seoul had initially proposed for July 21 at the Panmunjom truce village on the heavily militarized inter-Korean border.

“Easing the military tension between the South and North and restoring the military dialogue channel are very urgent tasks for peace and stability in the Korean Peninsula,'' the statement said.

If Seoul's proposal materialized at some point, the talks would be the first inter-Korean dialogue since December 2015.

Since then, ties between the Koreas have worsened over North Korea's expanding nuclear and missile programs.