South and North Korea will resume high-level military talks next week after a 21-month hiatus in an effort to reduce tensions and build confidence between the Cold War rivals, officials said Tuesday.

The two-day talks involving military generals from the two Koreas will start on March 2 at Panmunjom, a village on the border between the two countries where the 1953 Korean War truce was negotiated.

“The agenda of the talks will include ways of bolstering measures that have already been agreed upon to avoid accidental armed clashes in the Yellow Sea,” said a defense ministry official who did not want to named.

The meeting comes at a sensitive time with North Korea refusing to return to six-party nuclear talks unless the United States lifts sanctions imposed over alleged counterfeiting and money laundering.

At the first meeting held in June 2004, the two sides agreed on measures to reduce tensions, including establishing a hotline to avoid naval clashes in the Yellow Sea.

In addition, the two Koreas agreed to stop propaganda broadcasts along the 248-kilometer (154-mile) border.

Economic exchanges between the two neighbors, which agreed only to a ceasefire and not a formal peace treaty to end the 1950-1953 Korean War, have greatly increased following a summit in 2000.

But North Korea has stayed away from further general-level talks, citing various issues including the ongoing nuclear standoff with the United States.

Pyongyang has also denounced joint war games planned for March involving US and South Korean troops, saying they are aimed at invading the isolated country.

South Korea also has rejected the North’s demand to sever a decades-long military alliance with Washington, which keeps troops here under a mutual defense pact.

Colonel Moon Sung-Mook, a defense ministry policymaker, said the new round of military talks would focus on establishing joint fishing zones along the sea border and avoiding accidental clashes in the Yellow Sea.

The disputed sea border was the scene of naval clashes in 1999 and 2002 that left dozens of soldiers dead or injured on both sides.

Moon said Seoul would also press Pyongyang to set a date for a new meeting of defense chiefs, which was previously held in September 2000.

The South Korean delegation will be headed by a navy commodore, while an army major general will lead the North Korean side, he said.

Source: Agence France-Presse