Koreas' militaries hold first talks since missiles

SEOUL, Oct 2 (Reuters) Senior military officers from South and North Korea met today for the first time since relations soured in July after Pyongyang defied international warnings to test-fire a series of missiles.

But a South Korean official said his counterparts spent much of the time complaining about the behaviour of South Korean tourists to a North Korean mountain resort and did not touch on the missile issue.

''The North was talking about visitors following rules on what not to bring there and not making unnecessary comments to North Korean civilians,'' Colonel Moon Sung-mook told reporters in Seoul.

South Koreans have been flocking to the Mt Kumgang resort, the only tourist destination in the North open to them.

The talks were proposed by the North and took place at the truce village on the heavily fortified border that has divided the two Koreas for more than a half a century.

Moon said he had proposed stepping up efforts to ease military tensions on the peninsula.

Officials from the North replied that Pyongyang was committed to such measures but conditions must be ripe. Moon said they did not elaborate.

The talks were held as the international community tries to pressure North Korea to return to six-country talks to negotiate an end to its nuclear weapons programme.

Pyongayang quit the talks almost a year ago, refusing to return until the United States ends a financial crackdown on North Korean offshore bank accounts which analysts say is hurting the reclusive Pyongyang government.

Political ties between the two Koreas have improved in the past six years, but militarily they remain at a tense standoff under the truce that ended the 1950-53 Korean War. No peace treaty has ever been signed.

North Korea has stepped up criticism of South Korea in recent weeks, saying ''bellicose forces'' in Seoul were colluding with the United States to wage war against the North.

Today, the North's official newspaper Rodong Sinmun said South Korea's planned deployment of a new cruise missile capable of hitting almost all of North Korea was ''a grave criminal act designed to rain the calamity of war on the nation''.

REUTERS LL PM1544