North And South Korea Agree To De-Escalate Tensions After North Apologizes

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North Korea has officially apologized for maiming two South Korean border guards by planting landmines and the hermit nation promised to take additional steps to prevent a similar incident from happening again.

The news was announced the office of Kim Kwan-jin, Chief of South Korea’s National Security Office.

The North also decided, supposedly on its own, to withdraw a declaration of being in a “quasi-state of war” against Seoul, he said.

In return for the conciliatory gestures, South Korea will cease broadcasting anti-North Korean messages via its powerful frontline loudspeakers, starting Tuesday at noon.

The South added the caveat that all aspects of the deal will be null and void if the North makes any “abnormal” behavior.

The two Koreas also agreed to a reunion, to take place in late September, of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.

There have been no confirmation that any North Korean military hardware, including its 50 submarines, has been returned to its normal state of readiness.

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