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North Korea and South Korea on Wednesday discussed tension reduction on the world's last Cold War frontier at unprecedented talks between their military generals, officials said. The meeting, the first of its kind since the Korean War over five decades ago, lasted for two hours at Mount Kumgang, a tourist enclave on North Korean eastern coast, they said. It was followed by informal contacts between working-level officials, said Oh Jeong-Hee, a defense ministry official in Seoul who is in contact with the South's delegation. South Korea, sending a navy general as chief delegate, hoped the day-long consultations would produce concrete measures to reduce the threat of clashes with North Korea off the west coast. "Our delegates believe that the talks should be a first step towards reducing tension and building trust and most of all, work out measures to avoid accidental clashes in the West Sea (Yellow Sea)," said Oh. The talks were the first between top-level officers in uniform from the two sides since the 1950-1953 Korean War. At the talks, Seoul intended to propose setting up a military hotline and shared radio frequencies and flag signals for vessels to help avoid naval skirmishes, Yonhap news agency said. Seoul also wanted general-level talks to be held in a regular format for tension reduction, Yonhap said. The two Koreas are still technically at war since the war ended in a fragile armistice rather than a peace treaty. North Korea's 1.1 million-strong army faces off against South Korea's 700,000 troops backed by 37,000 US soldiers. Despite holding a historic summit of their leaders and launching cabinet-level talks for rapprochement in 2000, the two Koreas have yet to establish a regular military dialogue channel at senior level. Defense chiefs from the two sides met for the first time in 2000 following a leaders' summit in Pyongyang earlier that year. No follow-up defense chiefs meeting took place. Inter-Korean relations have been disrupted in the past by naval skirmishes in the rich fishing grounds off the western coast during the crab season from May to June. Since 1999, dozens of casualties have been reported on both sides. The last clash in June 2002 left six South Korean sailors dead. South Korean Unification Minister Jeong Se-Hyun on Tuesday expressed optimism about the outcome of the high-level talks. "Well begun is half done," he said. "The military talks would gain momentum if both sides fix a date for the next round." The agreement for the military talks was reached at the cabinet-level meeting between Jeong and his North Korean counterpart in Pyongyang earlier this month. Commodore Park Chung-Hwa, a one-star navy general, heads the five-strong South Korean delegation to the one-day meeting, the ministry said. The North's team is led by Major General An Ik-San. All rights reserved. Copyright 2003 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse. Quick Links
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