WORLD NEWS

SEOUL, June 10: North and South Korea agreed early Monday after marathon talks to hold a government- level meeting in Seoul with the aim of rebuilding trust following months of tensions and threats of nuclear war, reports AFP.
Sunday's preparatory discussions-weighed down, as always, by decades of mutual distrust-were held in the border truce village of Panmunjom where the armistice ending the 1950-53 Korean War was signed.
After nearly 18 hours of negotiations, the two sides early Monday reached agreement on holding their first high-level talks since 2007, the South's Yonhap news agency reported.
The main challenge was to agree a framework for the talks to be held in Seoul on Wednesday and Thursday.
South Korea had called for a ministerial meeting but the talks are now described as a government meeting between the two sides. The Unification Ministry in Seoul said the two sides had reached a partial understanding on outstanding issues during the Panmunjom talks, Yonhap said.
The North's official Korean Central News Agency meanwhile said the meeting would focus on restoring suspended commercial links, including the Kaesong joint industrial complex that the North effectively shut down in April as tensions between the historic rivals peaked.
It said other issues included reunion of families separated since the war and the resumption of tours by South Koreans to the North's Mount Kumgang resort. These were suspended after a North Korean soldier shot dead a South Korean tourist there in July 2008.
"It was agreed to discuss immediate and urgent matters concerning the inter-Korean relations including the issue of normalising the operation of the Kaesong industrial zone, the issue of resuming the tour of Mt. Kumgang,