Two Koreas Talk To Ease Tensions

Military officers from North and South Korea have talked inside the heavily guarded Demilitarized Zone in the first official dialogue since the North's deadly artillery barrage on a South Korean island.

According to South Korea's Defense Ministry, Colonel-level officers of the two Koreas met at the border village of Panmunjom to set a date and work out other details for higher-level defense talks.

Relations have been icy since the South in May accused the North of torpedoing a warship and killing 46 sailors, a charge it denies.

North Korea bombarded South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island, killing two marines and two civilians on November 23.

The two Koreas technically remain in a state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

compiled from agency reports