Military talks between two Koreas end in rancour

SEOUL, July 26 (Reuters) Military talks between the two Koreas to ease tensions on the Cold War's last frontier broke down in acrimony today over a nautical border set more than a half century ago.

The clash between generals from the two sides -- which have never formally ended their 1950-1953 war -- came despite an easing of tensions on the peninsula after Pyongyang began implementing a nuclear disarmament deal.

The North called the latest three-day meeting pointless.

''We've come to a conclusion that we don't need these fruitless talks any more,'' said a clearly angry Kim Yong-chol, the head of the North Korean delegation.

High-level military talks over the past few years have led to agreements where the two Koreas tore down propaganda signs along the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) barrier that divides them and set up hot-lines to prevent clashes in disputed waters on the west side of the peninsula.

The talks came just weeks after North Korea shut down its nuclear reactor and plant that produces plutonium for bombs as a part of an international deal reached in February in exchange for the South giving it 50,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil.

On Tuesday, Kim started the session held on the south side of a joint truce village in the DMZ by telling a bawdry joke and left today in a huff without shaking hands and charging the South with being inflexible.

''It is highly regrettable that we have to wrap up the three days of talks with no concrete results,'' said Jung Seung-jo, the leader of the South's delegation.

Jung said the North would not back down in its call for a new sea border to replace the ''Northern Limit Line'', which drawn by US-led United Nations forces after the Korean War ended in a truce. The line is the de facto sea border.

The North says the line is not valid and observes a notional frontier farther south. This has led to naval clashes in which dozens of sailors from both sides have died in recent years.

REUTERS LPB DS1210