No deal reached during inter-Korean military talks

SEOUL -- No agreement was reached during the inter-Korean military talks, the first such dialogue in almost four years, Seoul's Defense Ministry said Wednesday.

Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok told a press briefing that separate agreements were not made during the talks nor were schedules for next military dialogue discussed.

Military officials from the two Koreas held the "closed-door" meeting from 10 a.m. to 3:10 p.m. local time at the truce village of Panmunjom.

South Korea sent Army Brig. Gen. Moon Sang-gyun, director-general of arms control at the Defense Ministry, and senior Unification Ministry official Kim Ki-woong.

The DPRK dispatched Kim Yong-chul, head of the General Bureau of Reconnaissance, and Re Sun-kwon and Kwak Chul-hee, senior officials at the National Defense Commission.

During the military contact, the DPRK called for a ban of South Korean battleships'entrance into the patrol ship line, which lies, as Pyongyang has claimed, in the western waters.

Pyongyang also called on Seoul to stop spreading anti-DPRK leaflets across the border even from the civilian side, while calling for the suspension of slandering each other even by news organizations.

South Korea urged the DPRK to respect and observe the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the disputed western sea border, while saying that the authorities cannot control media reports and civic groups' distribution of anti-DPRK leaflets.

The inter-Korean military talks came in almost four years. The two Koreas last held working-level military talks in February 2011 and general-level talks in December 2007.

The talks came after the two Koreas exchanged fires near the military demarcation line last week. On Oct. 10, the DPRK fired machine gun at balloons carrying anti-DPRK leaflets floated by a South Korean civic group. After some of the bullets fell south of border, the two Koreas traded machine gun fires.

On Oct. 7, naval ships of the two Koreas exchanged fires near the disputed western sea border after a patrol ship of the DPRK violated the Northern Limit Line (NLL), which Pyongyang does not recognize.

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