Military officials from ROK and DPRK will discuss joint measures to avoid accidental armed clashes along their tense maritime border in Wednesday's inter-Korean military talks, South Korean officials said on Tuesday.

"They will discuss in their one-day meeting ways to reduce military tension and build confidence on the peninsula, focusing in particular on measures to prevent accidental clashes in the West Sea," said ROK Defense Ministry spokesman Brig. Gen. Nam Dae-yeon. The Northern Limit Line (NLL), a de facto border between the two Koreas, has recently been a source of naval battles between South Korean patrol boats and DPRK vessels that intruded into southern waters following their fishing boats.

South Korean military officers are scheduled to cross one of the world's most heavily fortified borders early in the morning to have the one-day meeting at Mt. Kumgang, a resort on the North��s east coast.

Divided more than half a century after the 1950-53 Korean War, the two Koreas agreed on the general-level military talks thanks to last-minute consent from the North during the latest Cabinet-level talks in Pyongyang earlier this month.

The five-member South Korean delegation, headed by Commodore Park Chung-hwa, will travel to the North's mountain resort area via an overland route to meet their DPRK counterparts, Nam explained.

Park's DPRK counterpart is An Ik-san, an army major general.

The two Koreas have undertaken tourism and a variety of other joint projects since the historic summit of their leaders in June 2000 but failed to make progress on reducing military tensions.

"We will focus on measures to prevent accidental maritime clashes. That is why we have a navy commodore leading our delegation," a ministry official said.

Source: Agencies