TOKYO (Sputnik) – High-ranking officials from South Korea and North Korea have launched negotiations in a bid to stave off a possible military confrontation, South Korea's YTN news channel reported Saturday.
Earlier in the day, a South Korean senior official said that the two sides had agreed to hold the negotiations in the border village of Panmunjom in the demilitarized zone. Shortly after that, North Korea confirmed it was ready for the talks and would join them.
It was announced that Seoul would be represented during the talks by Kim Kwan-jin, top security adviser to President Park Geun-hye and Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo.
Pyongyang will be represented by Hwang Pyong So, director of the General Political Bureau of the North Korean People's Army and Kim Yang Gon, senior official of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party.
The tensions between the neighbors come as Seoul resumed anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts along the border, a practice it had suspended more than a decade ago.
Under the North Korean ultimatum, Saturday is the last day for Seoul to dismantle loudspeakers broadcasting propaganda.
