Urgent talks on N Korea

High-level military officials from North Korea and the United States-led United Nations Command held urgent talks at the border yesterday amid heightened tensions in the region and concerns that the North intends to test-fire a long-range missile.

The talks at the village of Panmunjom inside the Demilitarised Zone dividing North and South Korea - the first meetings between general-level military officials since 2002 - were hastily arranged after the North proposed them last week, UN command spokesman Kim Yong-kyu said.