Seoul, Pyongyang agree to hold military-level talks

Seoul: South Korea and North Korea on Friday agreed to hold military-level talks on June 14 as part of efforts to ease tensions between the two countries.

The agreement came after senior officials from the two sides held talks at the border village of Panmunjom to discuss the implementation of the Panmunjom Declaration, which the leaders of the two Koreas signed after their meeting on April 27, reports Xinhua news agency.

They also agreed to hold a Red Cross meeting on June 22 to discuss holding a reunion of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.

The June 14 talks will take place at Tongilgak, a building controlled by the North Korean side in Panmunjom. 

The morning session of the meeting, that started at 10 a.m. at Panmunjom, ended after less than an hour. 

The talks were originally scheduled for May 16, but North Korea abruptly called them off at the last minute, taking issue with joint military drills between South Korea and the US. 

In an apparently hastily arranged second inter-Korean summit last week, the leaders of the two Koreas agreed to hold high-level talks on June 1.