09-151.pdf

ealize this.” 385
On March 2, the UNC and the KPA held half an hour of General
Officers’ talks in Panmunjom at North Korea’s request to discuss ways
to ease border tension. On February 28, the KPA had sent a message
to the South asserting that American troops had conducted
“provocative activities” by approaching too close to the MDL and
taking photographs of the North, but the South Korean Ministry of
National Defence defended the troops by arguing that they had not
stepped into North Korean territory and were engaged in work based
on the Armistice Agreement. At the first UNC-KPA General Officers’
talks held since September 2002, North Korea demanded that the US
and South Korea cancel the annual “Key Resolve and Foal Eagle
Exercise” aimed to assess abilities to rapidly reinforce frontline forces
and deter rear infiltration, but the meeting did not reach any tangible
results.
On March 5, at a time when North Korea was stepping up its
warnings against the exercise to be held on March 9-20, the UNC and
the KPA held a 45-minute meeting in Panmunjom, but the agenda was
not revealed. On March 9, North Korea cut off the only remaining
phone and fax channel and closed the border. The border was closed
three times during the exercise. On March 21, North Korea restored an
interrupted military communication channel and reopened the
border for South Koreans visiting the Kaesông Industrial Complex.
North Korea regarded the exercise as an “…undisguised threat of
385_ KCNA, ibid., January 30, 2009; The Korea Herald, “Lee says inter-Korean relations
will soon be repaired” (http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/, January 31, 2009): “N.K.
scraps accord with South” (http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/, January 31, 2009).
“Firm counteraction” and the president’s statement are original quotations.
Expanding Relations but Continuing Tension since 2000
509