S. Korea Rejects North’s Offer for Tripartite Talks Including U.S. General

The Defense Ministry here today rejected an unprecedented proposal by Communist North Korea for a tripartite meeting among the defense ministers of North and South Korea and the American commander of U.N. forces here.

In a written statement, the ministry condemned the North Korean proposal as “a mere propaganda ploy . . . not worthy of attention.”

The proposal was made in an unprecedented letter from North Korea’s armed forces minister, O Chin U, addressed to South Korean Defense Minister Lee Ki Baek. It was delivered Tuesday at the truce village of Panmunjom.

The North Korean official proposed that a working-level meeting be held June 27 in Panmunjom to arrange the first of a series of meetings in July, also at the truce village, between the two defense ministers and the American general who commands United Nations forces here. He said the discussions should attempt to relieve tensions in the Korean Peninsula.

O Chin U said the top-level military officials should discuss “all possible military measures to remove tension and conditions of conflict.”

“Any proposals by the United States and South Korea will be discussed if they are helpful for alleviating the tensions,” he added.

The North Korean minister proposed taking up the suspension of military exercises and halting the expansion of armed forces on both sides, then moving on to discuss reduction of forces and military equipment.

Disclosed on Radio

A Radio Pyongyang broadcast monitored in Tokyo on Tuesday disclosed the contents of the North Korean letter, and the South Korean Defense Ministry, in its rejection 24 hours later, confirmed them.

The South Korean Defense Ministry cited O Chin U’s proposal to include in the talks Gen. William J. Livsey, commander of 40,000 American troops stationed here under the auspices of the United Nations, as one of its reasons for rejecting them.

“North Korea is once again attempting to escalate the Korean issue into an international one, breaking the principle that Korean problems should be solved by officials of the south and the north,” the South Korean Defense Ministry said.

It also said the scope of the issues the north proposed to discuss exceeded the authority of “working-level military authorities and should be treated on political and diplomatic levels.”

“If the north really wants substantial progress, it should earnestly utilize the existing but suspended channels and agree to hold a south-north summit, as the south already has proposed,” the statement said.

Earlier this year, North Korea broke off what had been continuing talks on Red Cross matters, parliamentary exchanges and economic interchange to protest a massive, annual U.S.-South Korea military exercises. The training drill ended in April, but not until Tuesday had the north proposed to resume any contacts with the south except for routine armistice commission meetings at Panmunjom.

Troop Strength Totals

North Korea is reported to maintain armed forces of more than 700,000, while South Korea keeps 625,000 men under arms.

An American diplomat, who asked not be be named, said North Korea had given the U.N. Command prior notification that the letter would be delivered. Even before it arrived, “there was concern (among U.S. and South Korean officials) that the letter might be part of a propaganda offensive tied to talks in Lausanne,” he said.

South and North Korean officials met earlier this month in the Swiss city under the auspices of the International Olympic Committee to discuss holding in North Korea some of the events of the 1988 Summer Olympics, which Seoul will host.

North Korea, after opposing staging of the Olympics in Seoul, changed its stance to demand that it be allowed to co-host the 1988 Olympiad, which it regards as a potential international diplomatic triumph for South Korea.

Korea was divided after a Soviet occupation of the north and an American occupation of the south at the end of World War II in 1945 resulted in two governments with conflicting ideologies being established. From 1910 to 1945, Korea was ruled by Japan.