South and North Korea agree deal to reduce tensions

Seoul started the broadcasts after a landmine injured two of its soldiers on the border earlier this month. The South's lead negotiator said the move came after the North agreed to express "regret" over the incident, BBC News reports. The agreement came after marathon talks that began after an exchange of fire at the border last Thursday. The negotiations in the abandoned "truce village" of Panmunjom inside the demilitarised zone were said to have ended at 00:55 local time on Tuesday (15:55 GMT Monday). A joint statement said South Korea would stop the loudspeaker broadcasts at midday on Tuesday and the North would end its "semi-state of war". Both countries have also agreed to work towards a resumption of reunions for families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War. National security adviser Kim Kwan-jin, who led the negotiations for the South, said there would be follow-up talks to discuss a range of issues on improving ties But he said it was not the right time to push for a summit between the leaders of the two countries. The South resumed the propaganda broadcasts after an 11-year hiatus earlier this month in apparent retaliation for the landmine incident on 4 August - although the North denied having planted the mines. It also denied shelling South Korea last week - an incident that prompted artillery fire from the South. Pyongyang ordered its troops to be "on a war footing" on Friday while Seoul warned that it would "retaliate harshly" to any acts of aggression. About 4,000 residents were also evacuated from border areas in South Korea. The two Koreas remain technically at war, because the 1950-1953 conflict ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty. In 2004, South Korea and North Korea reached an agreement to dismantle their propaganda loudspeakers at the border. The broadcasts were part of a programme of psychological warfare, according to South Korean newspaper Korea Times, to deliver outside news so that North Korean soldiers and border-area residents could hear it.