South Korea proposed to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) resumption of the inter-Korean military talks aimed at easing tension on the Korean Peninsula, reported the South Korean Yonhap News Agency on Wednesday.

The inter-Korean military talks were halted after the two sides took a set of tension-reduction measures agreed upon by their general-grade officers in early June.

The South Korean military sent a telephone message to the DPRK side Wednesday to urge it to resume inter-Korean military talks, Yonhap quoted an official at the South Korean Defense Ministry as saying.

The DPRK has yet to respond to the South Korea's proposal, the official said.

He said if the talks are resumed, main agenda items will be the continued dismantling of propaganda facilities along their land border and the exchange of radio messages between their navies to prevent accidental armed clashes in the Yellow Sea.

Various Inter-Korean discussions, such as inter-Korean ministerial meeting, maritime talks and military working level contacts, were temporarily suspended.

The DPRK accused South Korea of not allowing its citizens to attend events marking the 10th anniversary of the demise of the DPRK's founding leader Kim Il Sung in Pyongyang.

The two sides also have been at odds over late July's mass defection of more than 400 DPRK people from a Southeast Asian country to South Korea. The DPRK criticized South Korea for receiving those defectors.

(Xinhua News Agency August 19, 2004)