Koreas resume talks as Seoul sees North Korea troop movement

PYONGYANG, North Korea -- Senior officials from North and South Korea were in their second day yesterday of marathon talks meant to pull the rivals back from the brink, amid reports of unusual North Korean troop and submarine movement that Seoul said indicated continued preparation for battle.

It was not clear whether any progress was being made in the talks, but for the time being the diplomacy pushed aside the heated warnings of imminent war.

The fact that senior officials from countries that have spent recent days vowing to destroy each other are sitting together at a table in Panmunjom, where the 1953 armistice ending fighting in the Korean War, is something of a victory.

The decision to hold talks came hours before a Saturday deadline set by North Korea for the South to dismantle loudspeakers broadcasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda at their border. North Korea had declared that its front-line troops were in full war readiness and prepared to go to battle if Seoul did not back down.

South Korea said that even as the North was pursuing dialogue, its troops were preparing for a fight.

An official from Seoul's Defense Ministry said about 70 percent of the North's more than 70 submarines and undersea vehicles had left their bases and were undetectable by the South Korean military as of Saturday.

The standoff is the result of a series of events that started with the explosions of land mines on the southern side of the Demilitarized Zone that Seoul says were planted by North Korea. Two South Korean soldiers on a routine patrol were maimed. In response, the South resumed anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts for the first time in 11 years, infuriating the North, which is extremely sensitive to any criticism of its authoritarian system.

There was shock and worry Thursday after South Korea fired dozens of artillery rounds across the border in response to what Seoul said were North Korean artillery strikes meant to back up an earlier threat to attack the loudspeakers.