The two Koreas have opened two days of general-level military talks.

The talks ... the third of their kind and the first in nearly two years ... opened Thursday morning at Tongilgak Pavilion on the northern side of the border truce village of Panmunjom.

Discussions are expected to mainly focus on military guarantees for the opening of cross-border roads and railroads, the prevention of accidental naval skirmishes and the designation of joint fishing zones in the West Sea.

Major General Han Min-gu, who is the policy planning director at the Defense Ministry, is representing the South while the North is represented by Lieutenant General Kim Yong-chol.

The government earlier decided to upgrade the rank of its chief delegate after Pyongyang requested that the talks be headed by officials ranking higher than brigadier general.

The rank of lieutenant general in the North is equivalent to that of major general in the South.