Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/561386
8 maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 26 AUGUST 2015 News South and North Korea reach accord to reduce tensions SOUTH Korea has halted its propaganda broadcasts into North Korea as part of a deal to defuse tension between the two neighbours. The move was part of a deal announced yesterday following marathon talks. Seoul began the loudspeaker broadcasts, which infuriate Pyongyang, after a landmine at the border injured two of South Korean soldiers earlier this month. The North had denied planting the mines, and also denied shell- ing South Korea last week – an incident that prompted artillery fire from the South. Pyongyang had put its troops "on a war footing" on Friday while Seoul warned that it would "retaliate harshly" to any acts of aggression. About 4,000 resi- dents were also evacuated from border areas in South Korea. The propaganda broadcasts in- cluded news from South Korea, Korean pop songs as well as oth- er material deemed "harmful" to the North Korean state. The tensions bubbled over in a brief exchange of fire at the heavily guarded border last Thursday. The deal was reached after the North, which initially denied planting the mine, agreed to express "regret". South Korea's President Park Geun-hye said the deal "could serve as an occasion to resolve all inter-Korean issues through trust". The two countries also agreed to work towards a resumption next month of reunions for families separated by the 1950- 53 Korean War, National Secu- rity Adviser Kim Kwan-jin, the South's lead negotiator, told re- porters. The negotiations in the border truce village of Panmunjom had played out against a dangerous military stand-off, which trig- gered a rare artillery exchange over the border last week. The talks had begun early on Saturday evening, shortly after the passing of a North Korean deadline for Seoul to halt its propaganda broadcasts or face military action. While the two Koreas have dif- ficulty agreeing to talks, once they do, marathon sessions are often the rule. After decades of animosity and bloodshed, find- ing common ground is a chal- lenge. The first session of the Pan- munjom talks lasted about 10 hours and the second session about 33 hours. During the talks at Panmun- jom, the North Korean negotia- tors raised the issue of restarting joint tours to the North's scenic Diamond Mountain resort, said the official from Seoul's unifica- tion ministry. South Korea stops broadcasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda on the border as the two countries pull back from the brink of a potential military conflict North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un inspecting a long-range missile exercise last year Record number of refugees cross into Hungary A record number of refugees en- tered Hungary on Monday, just days before a wall is erected on the Serbian border. A total of 2,093 asylum seekers, the highest ever daily total, crossed the border near the Hungarian town of Roszke, a police statement said. They were part of a wave of around 7,000 refugees whose journey to the European Union had been blocked last week when Macedonia declared a state of emergency and closed its borders after being overwhelmed by the huge influx of people, amid Europe's worst refugee crisis since World War II. Many refugees said they had passed through Serbia after travel- ling through Macedonia's border with Greece. This year, more than 100,000 asy- lum-seekers have reached Hungary, more than twice the total for all of last year. In 2012 the figure was just 2,000. The numbers have sharply in- creased to around 1,500 a day in August, after Hungary's right-wing government announced it would build a razor-wire fence along its southern border with Serbia. In recent days, refugees have en- tered Hungary alongside a cross- border train track near Roszke, one of the few sections of the border with Serbia not yet blocked by three rolls of razor-wire, which the gov- ernment says will completely seal off the border by the end of August. The fence is one of several tough anti-migration government meas- ures, which also include tightening of asylum laws, penalties for illegal border-crossing, and the planned closure of permanent refugee camps. About 102,000 migrants entered the EU via Macedonia, Serbia, Bos- nia and Herzegovina, Albania, Mon- tenegro or Kosovo between January and July this year, versus just 8,000 for the same period in 2014, accord- ing to EU border agency Frontex. The number of refugees now making their way from Greece to- wards the EU is worrying many EU politicians and has left the Balkan countries struggling to cope with the humanitarian crisis. Europe's raging migrant crisis is set to dominate a summit in Vienna of leaders from the western Balkans region on Thursday that will also be attended by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Walls are no solution Meanwhile, a UN expert on mi- gration said European leaders should do more to open up and help asylum seekers instead of using lan- guage that dismisses their rights. Talking about "marauders" and "swarms" was an unsubtle way of dismissing their legitimacy, Fran- cois Crepeau said. "European countries should open official channels and their labour markets to migrants because build- ing fences would not stop them coming," he said. Crepeau, the UN special rappor- teur on the human rights of mi- grants, called on the EU to create a "coherent and comprehensive mi- gration policy", making "mobility its central asset". "Let's not pretend that what the EU and its member states are do- ing is working. Migration is here to stay," he said in a statement. "Building fences, using tear gas and other forms of violence against migrants and asylum seekers, detention, withholding access to basics such as shelter, food or water and using threat- ening language or hateful speech will not stop migrants from com- ing, or trying to come, to Eu- rope."