국군, 오늘부터 유해발굴 단독 진행..."북한, 군사합의서 불이행으로 남측 압박"

The South Korean military has begun the ground work for the joint excavation of war remains in the Demilitarized Zone without North Korea's participation.
North Korea had left South Korea hanging until the very last minute, by not responding at all to the South’s proposal on the joint recovery operation.
Our Kan Hyeong-woo has this report.
Monday was supposed to be the start of the main part of the inter-Korean project to excavate and recover war remains in the DMZ. But nobody from the North Korean side has shown up at Arrowhead Hill,... the site of the project... just south of the Military Demarcation Line.
Seoul had sent Pyeongyang a list of the team it plans to send to the DMZ site in early March but there's been no reply.
Experts say North Korea is not complying with this part of the September military agreement and is trying to put pressure on South Korea after the Hanoi summit between Kim and Trump did not end with an agreement.
"In a sense, North Korea seems to have taken the Hanoi summit into account and is having a lot of thoughts about the implementation of the military agreement... So you could say they are using the military agreement as leverage in diplomacy."
Seoul's Defense Ministry says it plans to continue getting rid of landmines and carrying out basic excavation work in the Arrowhead hill area.
So if Pyeongyang decides to participate in the joint recovery in the future, the two Koreas can start working together.
There are concerns that this could mean the military agreement is dead as a whole,... but experts suggest it's too early to say that as North Korea has implemented other parts of the military agreement and South Korea should continue with the excavation of war remains.
"So what South Korea may do is, as they actually suggested, to proceed with the excavation unilaterally on the ground that it's a humanitarian issue that should not be subjected to politics."
Both Koreas followed through with the implementation of the agreements to take down guard posts on the border, disarm the Joint Security Area and conduct joint navigational research of the Hangang River estuary.
For the rest of the inter-Korean agreements in the military domain,... experts say Pyeongyang will use these as leverage in negotiations with both Seoul and Washington.
Kan Hyeong-woo, Arirang News