Two Koreas agree to hold mily talks

SEOUL (AFP) - South and North Korea have agreed to hold military talks this week to ease access to a jointly run industrial estate just north of the heavily fortified border, Yonhap news agency reported Sunday.
Citing an unidentified military official from the South, Yonhap said Seoul had accepted the Norths revised offer to hold the talks on Tuesday at the Kaesong estate in North Korea.
A South Korean defence ministry spokesman could not immediately confirm the report.
The military talks are supposed to discuss ways to improve transport and communications links to the Kaesong estate, where about 42,000 North Koreans work at more than 110 South Korean-funded plants.
Both sides had been at odds, with the South first preferring to hold the meeting at Panmunjom, a truce border village, on February 23 and the South later offering to reschedule it for March 2 in Kaesong.
More broadly, diplomatic efforts have been intensifying to revive talks aimed at dismantling North Koreas nuclear programme. The frozen dialogue groups the two Koreas, Japan, China, Russia and the United States.
While the efforts continue, North Koreas military on Thursday accused South Korean and US troops of planning a surprise attack as the two countries prepare joint exercises, and said it could respond with atomic weapons.
Cross-border military tensions have run high since a Yellow Sea firefight last November left a North Korean patrol boat in flames. In late January the North fired some 370 shells into the sea near the disputed maritime border.