The two Koreas held working-level military talks on Thursday to discuss detailed measures to reduce military tension and pave the way for next week's inter-Korean summit. 

The Defense Ministry in Seoul said that the meeting, which started at 10 a.m. Thursday at the truce village of Panmunjeom, ended at 3 a.m. on Friday after 17 hours of marathon talks.
 
A ministry official said that the two sides discussed details of a "comprehensive military agreement," which is expected to be officially signed by President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the upcoming inter-Korean summit next week. 

Following up on the progress made during the general-level talks in July, the South and North discussed specific measures such as withdrawing guard posts in the Demilitarized Zone on a trial basis, carrying out a joint project to excavate Korean War remains in the buffer zone and disarming the Joint Security Area in Panmunjeom.

However, the two sides reportedly had differences in relation to setting up a buffer zone in the Yellow Sea around the Northern Limit Line(NLL), a de facto inter-Korean maritime border, where the entry of warships and live-fire exercises would be banned. North Korea is said to have maintained its position that it cannot acknowledge the NLL as the border.

[Photo : YONHAP News]