North Korea And South Korea Complete Disarming Of 22 Guard Posts

rth and South Korean militaries completed withdrawing troops and firearms from 22 front-line guard posts on Saturday, vember 10 as y continue to implement a wide-ranging agreement reached in September to reduce tensions across world's most fortified border, a South Korean Defense Ministry official said.

South Korea says military agreement is an important trust-building step that would help stabilize peace and vance reconciliation between rivals.

But critics say South risks conceding some of its conventional military strength before rth Korea takes any meaningful steps on denuclearisation an anxiety that's growing as larger nuclear negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang seemingly drift into a stalemate.

South Korea reportedly has about 60 guard posts bunker-like concrete structures surrounded with layers of barbed-wire fences and manned by soldiers equipped with machine guns  stretched across ironically named Demilitarised Zone.

248-kilometer border buffer peppered with millions of landmines has been site of occasional skirmishes between two forces since 1950-53 Korean War. rth is believed to have about 160 guard posts within DMZ.

In September military agreement, reached on sidelines of a summit in Pyongyang between rth Korean leer Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, Koreas pledged to eventually withdraw all guard posts within DMZ but to start by removing 11 from each side as a "preliminary" measure.

South Korean Defence Ministry official said soldiers on Saturday completed disarming 11 guard posts on sourn side of DMZ. He said ministry believes rth has also finished withdrawing personnel and weapons from 11 guard posts on rrn side of DMZ. He didn't want to be named, citing office rules.

Koreas plan to destroy 20 of structures by end of vember, while symbolically leaving one demilitarised guard post on each side. y plan to jointly verify results in December 2018. 

Koreas also in September deal agreed to create buffer zones along ir land and sea boundaries and a -fly zone above border, which took effect on vember 1.

Koreas and US-led UN Command recently finished removing firearms and troops from a jointly controlled area at border vill of Panmunjom and eventually plan to allow tourists to freely move around re. Koreas have also been clearing mines from front-line areas and plan to start in April ir first-ever joint search for remains of soldiers killed during Korean War.

While Korean militaries move ahe with tension-reducing steps, Moon is orwise running out of goodwill gestures toward rth Korea, which is under heavy US-led sanctions over its nuclear weapons program.

Unless sanctions are lifted, it would be impossible for Moon to push ahe with his more ambitious plans for engment, such as reconnecting railways and ros across border and rmalising operations at a jointly run factory park.

Pyongyang insists that sanctions should be removed before re is any progress in nuclear negotiations, while Washington says y will remain until rth takes concrete steps toward irreversibly and verifiably relinquishing its weapons.

Analysts say discord may have caused last-minute cancellation of a meeting between US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his rth Korean counterpart, Kim Yong Chol, that h been scheduled for this past Thursday to discuss denuclearisation issues and setting up second summit between Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump