70% North Korea submarines undetected with high-level talks underway

Almost 70 percent of submarines of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) have been undetected Sunday, with the second round of high-level contact being under way in the truce village of Panmunjom, local media reported citing a South Korean Defense Ministry official as saying.

Some 50 DPRK submarines, which left bases in the western and eastern coasts, have been out of the detection range of the South Korean military, which estimated the DPRK had a total of 70 submarines.

The 70 percent was 10 times as high as the rate under normal situations and also the highest since the three-year Korean War ended in 1953.

The South Korean military sees the submarine departure rate as one of the major signals for the DPRK's provocation, stepping up efforts to trail DPRK submarines by dispatching patrol aircraft and destroyers.

South Korea and the United States raised their joint reconnaissance level toward the DPRK to the second highest, and the South Korean forces have been in maximum alert.

The DPRK more than doubled its artillery forces in the front- line areas, which were ready to fire at any time, the South Korean official was quoted as saying.

Amid the heightened tensions, top military aides to the leaders of the two Koreas launched the second round of high-level emergency contact at the truce village inside the demilitarized zone (DMZ) from 3:30 p.m. (06:30 GMT).

Kim Kwan-jin, chief security advisor to South Korean President Park Geun-hye, and Hwang Pyong So, top military aide to DPRK's top leader Kim Jong Un, held nearly 10 hours of marathon talks that adjourned at 4:15 a.m. Sunday, but they failed to narrow differences over the "recently formed situations."

South Korean Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo and his DPRK counterpart Kim Yang Gon, director of the United Front Department, accompanied Kim and Hwang to the highest-level meeting since President Park took office in February 2013.

The meeting was held to defuse the escalated tensions caused by the cross-border exchange of artillery fires on Thursday over South Korea's propaganda broadcasts. South Korea said it fired back a volley of artillery after the DPRK's shelling, but Pyongyang said it was a fabrication.

The cross-border shelling, which caused no casualties, intensified the already elevated tensions. On Aug. 4, three landmines detonated on the southern section of the DMZ, wounding two South Korean soldiers on a patrol duty. Seoul claimed that those had been deliberately planted by DPRK forces, but Pyongyang denied any involvement.

From Aug. 10, the South Korean military resumed broadcasting the propaganda loudspeakers, silenced for the past 11 years, in front-line units in retaliation for the landmine blast. The DPRK threatened indiscriminate strikes against the speakers