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AN ODD REQUEST. I wonder if this means anything:
North Korea's military proposed Friday holding direct talks with U.S. forces, an unusual plea amid recent progress on the nuclear standoff between the two countries.The North's Korean Peoples Army proposed the talks, also be attended by a U.N. representative, "for the purpose of discussing the issues related to ensuring the peace and security on the Korean peninsula," the chief of the North Korean military's mission at the truce village of Panmunjom said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency."It is easy to miss a chance, but difficult to get it," the North warned.The interesting part is the "North Korea's military proposed," rather than "North Korea proposed." While it's probably nothing, there's always the possibility that requests such as this indicate some kind of fracture in the North Korean state. While Kim Jong-Il has made the military his primary constituency, there are always fractures and coalitions within military organizations, and undoubtedly some opposition to the regime exists within the North Korean armed forces. But I'm probably reading too much into it. Any back-channel approach on the part of an anti-regime North Korean faction wouldn't, presumably, make it into the pages of the New York Times.--Robert Farley