South Korea’s peace-loving message on the Cambodia-Thailand conflict.
Seoul: South Korea on Tuesday urged Cambodia and Thailand to hold talks to resolve escalating border clashes, welcoming efforts by neighbouring countries to ease tensions.
“We appreciate ASEAN’s efforts to de-escalate tensions and seek a peaceful resolution to the situation,” South Korea’s foreign ministry spokesperson Park Il said in a commentary.
“The South Korean government urges Cambodia and Thailand to resolve the situation peacefully through dialogue at the earliest date possible,” he said, Yonhap News Agency reported.
Park added that Seoul welcomes the convening of the special foreign ministers’ meeting among the 11-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which both Cambodia and Thailand are members, to address the situation.
Bangkok and Phnom Penh have engaged in military clashes along their land border for a third week, so far resulting in at least 80 deaths, after truce talks collapsed.
The two countries agreed at Monday’s meeting of ASEAN’s top diplomats to hold talks between their defense officials on resuming the ceasefire.
Thailand and Cambodia have clashed over their shared land border, a dispute that remains unresolved due to competing territorial claims dating back to the French colonial era.
On Tuesday, a Cambodian defence spokesperson said Thai military forces continued to use artillery and tank-mounted machine guns to fire at multiple targets in Cambodian territory as of Tuesday morning.
The civilian death toll in Cambodia has increased to 21, as border conflict with Thailand has entered its 17th day, Defence Ministry’s Undersecretary of State and Spokesperson Lt. General Maly Socheata said, Xinhua News Agency reported.
“The Thai military had attacked locations where Cambodian civilians resided, resulting in 21 civilian deaths, including one infant, and injuries to 83 others as of 6 pm on December 22,” she said at a press briefing.
According to the latest figures released by the Cambodian Ministry of Interior, the conflict has so far forced about 545,000 Cambodians to flee their homes for safe shelters.
