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PYONGYANG - After four days of deadlocked meetings, South and North Korea finally agreed yesterday to hold cross-border high-level defense talks that may help ease military tensions on the divided peninsula.

The agreement came just minutes after the two sides wrapped up their 14th inter-Korean ministerial meeting in Pyongyang without concrete progress in the rapprochement talks.

"During the final meeting, our military informed us that they concur with holding the military talks as agreed during the 13th ministerial meeting in February," North Korean chief delegate Kwon Ho-ung said.

The two sides held a last-minute session following the closing talks, where Kwon informed the head of the South Korean delegation, Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun, that they would decide on a date "soon."

"The North did not state a specific time frame but it may be possible within this month," Jeong said.

Seoul and Pyongyang signed a three-point joint press statement on the 14th South-North Ministerial Meeting stating the two sides would work toward rapprochement in accordance with the June 2000 summit agreement between the South's then-President Kim Dae-jung and the North's leader Kim Jong-il. The statement also includes the agreement to continue cooperation in resolving cross-border issues through dialogue, and to hold military talks as promised in February.

Upon return from the four-day meeting, Minister Jeong told reporters that the military talks are likely to be held by the middle of this month, as the North's delegation also agreed that there are no reasons to push it off to a further time frame.

He also said the 10th reunion for separated families will take place for 6 days around June 20.

Despite the last-minute progress, the joint press statement released at the end of discussions made no mention of North Korea's nuclear arms programs.

The Pyongyang meeting was held a week before North Korea is due to begin its first working-group session with the United States, South Korea, China, Japan and Russia on its nuclear standoff.

Those talks, to open in Beijing on May 12, are aimed at finding a solution to the deadlock ahead of the third round of six-nation discussions scheduled to take place before the end of June. The two rounds of talks previously held in Beijing failed to make a clear breakthrough.

Prospects for the talks were brightened by a positive remark from North Korea's reclusive leader Kim Jong-il during his trip to China last month, that the communist regime would exercise "patience and flexibility" in trying to resolve the dispute through dialogue.

A key issue on the agenda is the North's demand for security guarantee and economic rewards for the impoverished communist nation, in return for freezing its nuclear programs. Washington insists that Pyongyang stick to the only optimatum of the 'Complete Varifiable Irreversible Dismantlement.'

Seoul and Pyongyang also agreed to hold the next round of ministerial talks - the highest level of formal contact between the two brother nations - from August 3-6 in Seoul.

This week's meeting which opened four days ago, began with the two Koreas on opposite ends of the stick over pending military issues, as Pyongyang called for a halt to South Korea-U.S. joint military exercises and Seoul pushed for high-level defense talks this month.

South Korea holds about a dozen joint military exercises annually with the United States, which has about 37,000 troops stationed in the southern peninsula as a deterrent against the Stalinist North.

North Korea boasts a military consisting of 1.1 million soldiers, the fifth largest in the world.

(bluelle@heraldm.com)

By Joint Press Corps and Korea Herald reporter Choi Soung-ah