S. Korea, DPRK agree to withdraw 11 guard posts in border…

South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) agreed Friday to pull out 11 guard posts in border area on a trial basis by late November.

The agreement was reached after a general-grade military dialogue was held earlier in the day at Tongilgak, a DPRK building in the truce village of Panmunjom.

The military delegations of the two sides adopted a joint statement after the talks, which said South Korea and the DPRK agreed to withdraw troops and equipment and completely destroy 11 guard posts by the end of November.

Seoul and Pyongyang already agreed in the past military dialogue to pull out guard posts on a trial basis from the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), which has left the Korean Peninsula divided since the 1950-1953 Korean War ended with armistice.

Through a joint verification in December, the two Koreas agreed to wrap up the guard post withdrawal by the end of this year, according to the joint statement.

Based on the result of the pilot pullout, the two sides agreed to make working-level discussions for the withdrawal of all guard posts in the inter-Korean border area, the statement said.