N. Korea Offers Small Border Opening
North Korea offered Friday to open a small stretch of its border to promote unification with South Korea, but its capitalist rival dismissed the gesture as insignificant.
Pyongyang announced that it would open the northern sector of Panmunjom, a border village, on Aug. 15, according to Naewoe Press, a semi-official South Korean news agency.
North Korea said opening the area, about 800 yards long and 500 yards wide, is intended to promote unification of the Korean peninsula. It urged South Korea to do the same.
The opening, however, would not permit foreigners to travel past the perimeter of Panmunjom, a truce village that straddles part of the 155-mile border between the two Koreas. The village is jointly controlled by North Korea and a U.N. Command.
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