 "Two Koreas agree to talks as military deadline looms")
North and South Korea took a step back from a looming military clash today, agreeing to hold top-level talks as their respective armies faced off across the border on maximum alert.
The agreement on the talks -- to be held at the border truce village of Panmunjom -- came just hours before the expiry of a North Korean ultimatum for Seoul to halt loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts across the border or face military action.
The four delegates -- two from each side -- will include the South Korean president's national security adviser, Kim Kwan-Jin, and the man widely seen as North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un's number two, Hwang Pyong-So.
The announcement came with both Koreas bracing for a confrontation as the clock ticked down to the North's 0830 GMT deadline.
Seoul had insisted it would not accede to Pyongyang's demand to turn off the loudspeakers which have been blasting propaganda messages into North Korea for the past week.
The North Korean People's Army (KPA) said it had moved into a "fully armed, wartime state" on the orders of Kim Jong-Un, while the foreign ministry in Pyongyang warned Saturday that the situation had "reached the brink of war" and was "hardly controllable".
The international community has long experience of North Korea's particularly aggressive brand of diplomatic brinkmanship, and the last minute decision for a dialogue will confirm for many that this has largely been another exercise in attention-seeking by Pyongyang.
For the moment, there has been little sense of panic among ordinary South Koreans who have become largely inured over the years to the North's regular -- and regularly unrealised -- threats of imminent war.
But the military has been on maximum alert, and US and South Korean jets flew simulated bombing sorties around midday Saturday in a clear show of defiance and force.
The Yonhap news agency quoted military sources as saying the North, meanwhile, had towed artillery units close to the border for a possible strike against the military loudspeaker units.
Technically, the two Koreas have been at war for the past 65 years, as the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a ceasefire that was never ratified by a formal peace treaty.
The last direct attack on the South was in November 2010 when North Korea shelled the South Korean border island of Yeonpyeong, killing two civilians and two soldiers.
The agreement on the talks -- to be held at the border truce village of Panmunjom -- came just hours before the expiry of a North Korean ultimatum for Seoul to halt loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts across the border or face military action.
The four delegates -- two from each side -- will include the South Korean president's national security adviser, Kim Kwan-Jin, and the man widely seen as North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un's number two, Hwang Pyong-So.
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The presidential Blue House in Seoul said the talks were set to begin at 6:00 pm (0900 GMT).
The announcement came with both Koreas bracing for a confrontation as the clock ticked down to the North's 0830 GMT deadline.
Seoul had insisted it would not accede to Pyongyang's demand to turn off the loudspeakers which have been blasting propaganda messages into North Korea for the past week.
The North Korean People's Army (KPA) said it had moved into a "fully armed, wartime state" on the orders of Kim Jong-Un, while the foreign ministry in Pyongyang warned Saturday that the situation had "reached the brink of war" and was "hardly controllable".
The international community has long experience of North Korea's particularly aggressive brand of diplomatic brinkmanship, and the last minute decision for a dialogue will confirm for many that this has largely been another exercise in attention-seeking by Pyongyang.
For the moment, there has been little sense of panic among ordinary South Koreans who have become largely inured over the years to the North's regular -- and regularly unrealised -- threats of imminent war.
But the military has been on maximum alert, and US and South Korean jets flew simulated bombing sorties around midday Saturday in a clear show of defiance and force.
The Yonhap news agency quoted military sources as saying the North, meanwhile, had towed artillery units close to the border for a possible strike against the military loudspeaker units.
Technically, the two Koreas have been at war for the past 65 years, as the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a ceasefire that was never ratified by a formal peace treaty.
The last direct attack on the South was in November 2010 when North Korea shelled the South Korean border island of Yeonpyeong, killing two civilians and two soldiers.