SEOUL, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's military planned to facilitate tension reduction with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) next year, the defense ministry said Thursday in its 2019 policy report to President Moon Jae-in.
The ministry said in the report that it will continue to enforce the comprehensive military agreement with the DPRK, which was signed by defense chiefs of the two Koreas during the Pyongyang summit in September between Moon and top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un.
Under the agreement, the two sides decided to stop all hostile acts on the ground, in waters and the air near the inter-Korean border, to pull out guard posts from the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), and to jointly excavate the remains in the DMZ of the soldiers killed during the 1950-53 Korean War.
Earlier this month, military authorities of the two Koreas verified the complete pullout of weapons and soldiers from 11 respective guard posts in the DMZ and the demolition of 10 of them on a trial basis. One respective guard post was preserved for their historical value.
The South Korean military planned to push for discussion with the DPRK next year about the withdrawal of all the guard posts inside the DMZ to reduce tension and build trust between the two Koreas.
South Korea and the DPRK reportedly have about 50 and 150 guard posts each inside the DMZ which has left the Korean Peninsula divided since the three-year Korean War ended in 1953 with armistice.
The leaders of the two Koreas agreed to transform the DMZ into a peace zone by stopping all hostile acts following their first summit in April at the truce village of Panmunjom.
The Seoul military aimed to launch a joint military committee with the DPRK in the first half of next year to discuss military issues such as setting a maritime peace zone near the Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the western waters.
Pyongyang has denied the NLL as a sea boundary as it was drawn unilaterally by the U.S.-led UN troops by the end of the Korean War.
