The South and North Korean defense ministers agreed on the need to "eliminate the danger of war" on the Korean peninsula during landmark talks Tuesday.
The South's Defense Minister Cho Sung-Tae and the North's Armed Forces Minister Vice Marshall Kim Il-Chol held the first meeting between defense chiefs since the division of Korea in 1945 and the 1950-53 Korean War which has never been formally ended.
"The two sides share the view that it is important for both sides to ease military tension, eliminate the danger of war and help a permanent peace take root," said a joint statement released at the end of the two days of talks.
The two Koreas will also start military talks next month on the restoration of a road and rail link through the heavily fortified border and the ministers will meet again in North Korea in mid-November, the statement said.
The talks on the island of Cheju were the most important since the historic summit in June between President Kim Dae-Jung and the North's supreme leader Kim Jong-Il which produced a declaration to move toward peace and eventual reunification.
At separate economic talks in Seoul, however, the crisis-stricken North asked for more food aid from the South.
Seoul would announce more aid for the North next month, a top South Korean official said after the economic talks ended. North Korea announced Monday that a renewed drought and two recent typhoons had caused the loss of 1.4 million tons of grain.
The two Koreas will start more ministerial level talks in Cheju on Wednesday but these have been overshadowed by the military meeting.
"It is quite significant that the defense ministers of both sides have met and agreed to give military support in implementing the joint North-South Declaration," Cho told journalists before a farewell lunch with Kim Il-Chol.
"It is also very important that the two sides agreed to make joint efforts to ease military tension and guarantee peace on the Korean peninsula," the minister added.
Cho highlighted last week that amidst the dramatic change in relations, military hostility remained at a high level. The United States has called for North Korea to make a military gesture to show it is sincere about reconciliation.
Lieutenant General Kim Hee-Sang, deputy chief of the South Korean delegation, said the meeting had "laid the groundwork for talks" on South Korea's proposal for the creation of a military hotline and the notification of military movements and training.
He said the agreement to work together on the rail and road links had "launched efforts to build mutual confidence between the armies."
The meeting had been significant because "without peace on this land, the Korean peninsula has no future," the top officer said.
The North's defense minister is to meet President Kim Dae-Jung in Seoul before returning to Pyongyang on Tuesday, a presidential spokesman said.
Just the fact that the defense chief from the communist North calls on the president at the presidential Blue House illustrates the reconciliatory mood created by the inter-Korean summit, he said.
"We should not be hasty. It is important for us to move forward step by step in seeking to build up mutual trust.
"The two armies have made a significant first step toward building up mutual confidence," he said.
The two Koreas agreed last month to reconnect the railway between Seoul and the North's city of Shinuiju, on the border with China, and to build a new road through the border alongside the railway.
The project will require the removal of tens of thousands of landmines planted along the heavily fortified border.
Unprecedented coordination between military authorities on either side is imperative to avoid accidental clashes between rival troops on the border or casualties from landmines, the South's military has said -- CHEJU, South Korea (AFP)
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