Kim Kwan-jin

Rival Koreas hold high-level talks to defuse war fears

The closed-door meeting at Panmunjom, where the armistice ending fighting in the Korean War was agreed to in 1953, began early Saturday evening, shortly after a deadline set by North Korea for the South to dismantle loudspeakers broadcasting anti-North Korean propaganda at their border, said an official from South Korea's Unification Ministry.

North Korea had declared that its front-line troops were in full war readiness and prepared to go to battle if Seoul did not back down.