Generals from two Koreas to mull historic train run

SEOUL, May 2 (Reuters) North Korea wants generals from the two Koreas to discuss the first train crossings of their heavily fortified border in more than 50 years, after vetoing a test run in 2006 over security fears, officials said today.

South Korea's Defence Ministry said it was considering the North's proposal to hold the highest-level inter-Korean military meeting in about a year.

The North was calling for a meeting from May 8 to 10, just north of the border, a ministry official said. Typically, when South Korea announces an invitation from the North, it accepts.

At economic talks last month the two Koreas set May 17 for the highly symbolic first border crossing since the 1950-1953 Korean War, when refugees and wounded soldiers made the last such trip.

North Korea's military, suspicious of setting up links with the outside world, has so far blocked the test runs.

A planned rail crossing in May 2006 was scuttled at the last minute due to objections from the generals, who had called for strict security measures to monitor the trains.

South Korea has built two rail crossings, one on the east coast and another about 60 km (40 miles) northwest of Seoul.

Ties between the two Koreas, chilled by the North's missile test last July and nuclear test three months later, have warmed since Pyongyang agreed at six-party talks in February to start shutting its main reactor in exchange for energy aid.

REUTERS ABM RK1620