South Korea may make another offer of military talks with North Korea early next year, local media reported Thursday.

Citing unnamed government sources, a local daily reported that the measure is included in the draft of the Moon Jae-in administration’s “denuclearization roadmap.” The roadmap is one of the 100 tasks set out by the new administration in July. 

The roadmap is said to be focused on South Korea taking the initiative in resolving inter-Korean issues, including the matter of Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions. As part of its plans to take the lead, Seoul hopes to prompt a response from Pyongyang by suggesting ways to ease military tensions on the peninsula.

Aside from military talks, other possible measures contained in the roadmap include those aimed at easing tensions and preventing accidental clashes along the border. Offering humanitarian aid, reunion of separated families and other nonmilitary measures are said to be being considered as secondary options.

The news follows days after President Moon Jae-in revealed that South Korea-US joint military drills scheduled to be held during next year’s PyeongChang Olympics could be pushed back. The Winter Olympics and Paralympics will be held from Feb. 9 to Feb. 25 and March 9 to March 18, respectively.

In an interview with the US broadcaster NBC on Tuesday, Moon revealed that Seoul had suggested pushing back major joint military drills to Washington. Cheong Wa Dae, however, denied reports that the exercises -- Key Resolve and Foal Eagle -- will be scaled down.

On Tuesday, however, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that he was not aware of any such developments during a joint press conference with Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland.

“They’re carried out on a scheduled basis. We announce them in advance. There’s nothing surprising about them, and I’m not aware of any plans to change what is scheduled,” Tillerson said, saying that the exercises have been in place for a number of years.

In response, Moon‘s chief press secretary Yoon Young-chan on Wednesday said that the matter was being discussed by South Korean and US militaries.

Seoul had suggested military talks in July, but Pyongyang ignored the offer.
Since 2000, when the first-ever inter-Korean defense ministers’ talks were held, the two sides have held 39 working-level military talks. The most recent working-level talks were held in February 2011, about three months after North Korea’s shelling of South Korea’s Yeongpyeong Island in the West Sea. The two sides also held the second defense ministerial talks in November 2007, and seven general-level talks.

By Choi He-suk (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)