Talks between Koreas to resume after marathon meeting

North Korea proposed the talks on Friday, according to South Korea’s presidential office.

Details about the meeting are yet to emerge, with reporters not allowed to attend and no press conference conducted after the late finish.

The first high-level talks in almost a year between South Korea and North Korea have stretched into the early hours of Sunday.

South Korea had been utilizing 11 loudspeaker methods alongside the border for the broadcasts, which included the newest information across the Korean Peninsula and the world, South Korean in style music and packages praising the South’s democracy and financial affluence over the North’s oppressive authorities, a senior army official stated at a information convention, on situation of anonymity.

Seoul has refused to turn off the loudspeaker broadcasts until Pyongyang apologises for mine blasts this month that maimed two South Korean soldiers on border patrol. While North Korea hates the drills and calls them preparation for a northward attack, now is a particularly bad time to start a war.

From 12am to 1pm on Saturday, the U.S. and South Korea conducted a joint air force training session, which practiced the targeting of an imaginary enemy, without real bombing activities. South Korean fishermen were barred from entering disputed waters near the North Korean border, the AP said. The North Korean leader, he said, “must be very insecure”, as has been seen in the executions of senior officials such as General Hyon Yong-chol recently.

The North’s KCNA news agency also announced the meeting, referring to the South as the Republic of Korea, a rare formal recognition of its rival state, in sharp contrast to the bellicose rhetoric in recent days.

At the same time, Kim acknowledged that second-guessing Pyongyang’s game plan was always risky, and the possibility of a North Korean strike of some sort could not be ruled out.

On Friday, North Korea warned its southern neighbor to halt the “provocations” and its propaganda broadcasts against Pyongyang by Saturday afternoon or pay the price.

Authoritarian North Korea, which has additionally restarted its personal propaganda broadcasts, is extraordinarily delicate to any criticism of its authorities.

High-level talks between North Korea and South Korea have begun in an effort to defuse mounting tensions that have pushed the rivals to the brink of a possible military confrontation.

Hwang is considered by outside analysts to be North Korea’s second most important official after its leader Kim Jong Un.

On Friday South Korean President Park Geun-Hye appeared on television, wearing army fatigues and telling top military commanders that further North Korean provocations “will not be tolerated”.

“It’s the same reason about South Korea’s demand for the apology for the sinking of the Cheonan”. Seoul accused North Korea of laying the mines, which Pyongyang has denied.

Said Pyongyang citizen Choe Sin Ae: “I think that the South Korean puppet gangsters should have the clear idea that thousands of our people and soldiers are totally confident in winning at any cost because we have our respected leader with us”. North Korea argued that, since the letter it sent on August. 20 was addressed to National Security Chief Kim Kwan-jin, Kim and not Hong should have sent the reply. No casualties were reported. On Thursday, it launched four shells into South Korea.