ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, December 30, 1996 TAG: 9612300118
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Washington Post TOKYO
SOUTH KOREA'S foreign minister quickly called for a meeting with North Korea to discuss beginning peace talks.
North Korea issued an extraordinary apology Sunday for sending commandos in a spy submarine into South Korean waters in September, instantly easing two months of high-stakes tension on the Korean Peninsula.
The Communist nation's official radio carried a 66-word statement in English and Korean, expressing ``deep regret'' for the incident that ``caused tragic loss of human life.''
The statement vowed that North Korea ``will make efforts to ensure that such an incident will not recur and will work with others for durable peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.''
North Korea and South Korea are still bitter antagonists facing each other across the world's most heavily fortified border. But Sunday's apology, an unprecedented expression of contrition from the world's last Stalinist stronghold, has ended one of the more tense periods in recent history on the tinderbox peninsula, where 37,000 U.S. troops are stationed.
The announcement also cleared the way for negotiations to begin peace talks, and for the delivery of tons of humanitarian food aid that had been delayed because of the submarine incursion.
The North Korean submarine was discovered grounded off South Korea's rocky eastern coast Sept.18. After a manhunt involving tens of thousands of South Korean troops, 24 submarine crewmen were found dead or killed by South Korean troops, one was captured and one is missing. Thirteen South Korean troops and civilians also were killed.
South Korean President Kim Young Sam called the incident a ``military provocation'' and warned of ``all-out war.'' He took a harder line against North Korea than before, calling for increases in military spending and ordering a freeze on all aid and communication with the North until it apologized.
The United States backed Kim and froze most contact with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's government, which until Sunday steadfastly insisted that the submarine had drifted into South Korean waters accidentally after developing engine trouble on a routine training mission.
Kim Young Sam was on vacation Sunday and had no immediate comment. But South Korean Foreign Minister Yoo Chong Ha quickly called for a meeting with North Korea to discuss beginning peace talks that would consist of the two Koreas, the United States and China.
That idea was proposed in April by President Clinton and South Korean President Kim, but Kim suspended his nation's participation pending a North Korean apology.
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