President Lee Jae Myung has warned risks of accidental clashes with North Korea, saying Seoul must continue to make efforts with patience to resume dialogue with Pyongyang to reduce such risks.
Lee gave the assessment on inter-Korean relations at a press conference aboard his flight from Johannesburg to Ankara on Sunday (local time), as part of his four-nation trip to Africa and the Middle East.
Inter-Korean relations have turned extremely hostile and confrontational, and North Korea is engaging in very extreme actions without even the most basic level of trust," Lee told reporters. "We are in a very dangerous situation where accidental clashes could break out at any time."
He renewed his call for dialogue after Seoul proposed military talks to clarify the Military Demarcation Line (MDL), aimed at preventing unintended clashes near the border. The proposal came amid repeated incidents of North Korean soldiers briefly crossing the MDL while clearing land or laying mines in the buffer zone.
Lee noted that the North has been installing triple layers of barbed wire along the MDL, raising the risk of warning-fire incidents amid differing views on the precise border line.
