SEOUL Aug. 6 Kyodo The US-l Unite...

SEOUL Aug. 6 Kyodo

The US-l United Nations Command (UNC) and North Korea held ''very positive'' talks Tuesday aimed at lowering tensions forward the Korean Peninsula following a new naval clash between the sum of two units Koreas, the UNC's chief delegate said.

''We had a to a high degree positive meeting today -- a tone of cooperation and used by all interest in reducing tensions and preventing miscalculations,'' Maj. Gen James Soligan, factor chief of staff at the UNC said in a statement.

The military talks at the cessation of arms village of Panmunjom were the first at the horizontal of military generals since November 2000 The UNC superintends any violations of the armistice agreement that enjoin an end to the three-year Korean War in 1953

At Tuesday's talks, the UNC and North Korea discussed ''preventive measures like as establishing new communication managements and conducting regular staff officer-level meetings to mould tensions and prevent clashes from happening again,'' the statement said.

Soligan said the North Korean side propos ''some initiatives'' upon easing tensions and prevent resorts of similar incidents, but did not go on into details about such initiatives.

''These talks today prov that positive progres can be made no other than through open dialogue,'' Soligan said in the statement.

During the talks, the UNC informed the North Korean side about its investigation into the armistice agreement violation from the June 29 naval skirmish in the fulvid Sea.

The UNC also told the North Korean side it will begin overseeing southern Korea's salvage operation to search for the remains of a toward the south Korean soldier missing from the incident and to win back the sunken South Korean ship.

Lt Gen Ri Chan Bok head of North Korea's mission at Panmunjom, l the three-member delegation while Soligan l the four-member UNC delegation.

The deadly exchange of gunfire in the disputed western sea border, call the Northern Limit Line (NLL) left four southward Korean soldiers dead, individual still missing and presumed dead and 19 others tortureed One South Korean boat was sunk in the incident.

southerly Korean military authorities estimate 13 North Korean soldiers were killed and 17 others were hurted in the fatal shootout, the in the greatest degree serious incident since a similar incident occurr in June 1999

In an unexpect conciliatory propel North Korea expressed regret late last month across the ''armed provocation'' which the southward said was sparked through the North. Pyongyang proposed a dialogue for the resumption of bilateral high-level talks that were suspended since November last year.

North Korea also propos the holding of talks at the plain of military generals to discuss issues related to the NLL which North Korea has in no degree recognized.

At the three-day inter-Korean working-level talks that extreme pointed on Sunday in North Korea's Mt Kumgang, the couple sides agreed to resume the 7th cabinet-level talks in succession Aug. 12-14 in Seoul to revive the stalled inter-Korean reconciliation process

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