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SEOUL,South Korea-The defense chiefs of North and South Korea began a rare meeting Tuesday to discuss easing tension across their disputed sea border on a harmonious note, pledging to end the peninsula's division.South Korean Defense Minister Kim Jang-soo arrived in Pyongyang Tuesday on a direct flight from Seoul for three days of talks with his North Korean counterpart Kim Il Chol-the first defense ministerial talks between the Koreas in seven years.This week's talks are aimed at fleshing out agreements to foster peace and cooperation between the Koreas signed by South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il last month, at only the second-ever summit between the countries.The Koreas remain technically at war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.The division of Korea "is a very important issue and is the matter that we have to resolve within our generation without further delay," the North's Kim said, according to pool reports. "I hope we will do something that goes down in history by advancing the unification."The South's minister responded, "I think if we map out a stepping stone, the era that we want to have will come at an early date."Earlier this month, the prime ministers of the two Koreas met and agreed to launch a cross-border train service and construction projects in the impoverished North, along with other reconciliation projects.However, the defense talks were seen as crucial because the North's military has in the past put the brakes on burgeoning rapprochement because of security concerns.The North's 1.1 million-strong army is the backbone of leader Kim's authoritarian rule of 23 million people. Soldiers get first pick of the country's scarce resources and are rewarded generously for their service as the vanguard against the outside world.A plan to establish a joint fishing area in the West Sea and designate it as a "peace and cooperation zone" was expected to be a key issue at the defense talks.The poorly marked western sea border was the scene of bloody naval skirmishes between the two Koreas in 1999 and 2002, and the North has long insisted the frontier be redrawn further south. The waters around the border are rich fishing grounds and boats from the two Koreas routinely jostle for position during the May-June crab-catching season.Another issue that could be raised at the talks is Seoul's concern about more than 500 South Korean prisoners of war believed still alive in the North. The North insists there are no prisoners or abductees in the country, insisting any South Koreans there went voluntarily.The defense talks come amid progress in international efforts to rid North Korea of its nuclear weapons program, with Pyongyang beginning to disable facilities in its main nuclear complex this month in return for energy aid and other benefits.A team of U.S. experts has been in North Korea since early this month to monitor the disablement process. Officials from South Korea, China, Japan and Russia will visit the North Korean nuclear complex this week to check on progress, South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Hee-yong said Monday.The two Koreas held their first defense ministers' talks on the South Korean island of Jeju in September 2000, three months after the first-ever summit between the two countries.As in the days of Noah....
