Seoul, Pyongyang to hold working-level military talks

Seoul : South and North Korea have agreed to hold working-level talks on military affairs later this week, Seoul's Defence Ministry said on Tuesday.

The ministry said the two sides agreed to hold the 40th round of the military talks on Thursday in Tongilgak, a North Korean building at the border village of Panmunjom, reports Xinhua news agency.

The military talks would come ahead of the summit between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, scheduled to be held in Pyongyang for three days from September 18.

The colonel-level military officers from the two sides were forecast to discuss ways to ease military tensions between the two Koreas, including the withdrawal of a part of guard posts inside the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), which divides the two sides, on a trial basis.

Also on the dialogue agenda would be ways to disarm the Joint Security Area (JSA) inside the Panmunjom and the joint excavation of the remains of fallen soldiers during the 1950-53 Korean War.

Those issues were agreed upon by the two sides during the general-grade military talks in late July.