North, South Korea agree to resume talks

SEOUL, Feb 14 (Reuters) North Korea and South Korea said today they had agreed to resume ministerial talks, which were suspended after Pyongyang's nuclear test last October.

The move came a day after a breakthrough agreement among six countries in Beijing under which communist North Korea will take steps to dismantle its nuclear arms programme in return for energy aid.

South Korea's Unification Ministry said in a statement that delegates from the two countries -- which are still technically at war -- would meet in the North Korean border city of Kaesong tomorrow to discuss when to open the talks.

North Korea's state-run KCNA news agency said Pyongyang's head of delegation to the inter-Korean talks had agreed to South Korea's proposal of renewed contact.

''In the message, the head of the North side delegation agreed to the proposal for having a working contact between delegates for the opening of the talks,'' KCNA said.

The 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice and the peninsula remains divided by one of the world's most heavily armed borders.

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun's government scrupulously avoids criticising Pyongyang and has followed a policy of dialogue, investment and aid to try to persuade its impoverished neighbour to open up.

However, Seoul did suspend aid after missile tests by the North last July and there have been no top-level meetings between the two since the October nuclear test.

REUTERS MS PM1111