SEOUL, South Korea - North and South Korea struggled Wednesday to resolve differences over creating a joint fishing zone around their disputed sea border at a second day of rare defense talks in Pyongyang.
The border was the main sticking point at the meeting between South Korean Defense Minister Kim Jang-soo and his North Korean counterpart, Kim Il Chol, media pool reports from Pyongyang said.
"I felt our differences are big," the South's Kim said during the talks, according to pool reports.
"I have to return home tomorrow, regardless of whether things go well or don't go well," he said. "That is a big burden."
The three days of talks -- the second-ever meeting between defense chiefs of the Koreas, which remain technically at war -- are aimed at fleshing out agreements struck at a summit between the two countries last month.
"Negotiations are proceeding slowly due to differences in basic positions on main issues," said Col. Moon Sung-mook, spokesman for the South's delegation, according to pool reports.
At the summit, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun agreed to establish a joint fishing ground off the divided peninsula's west coast to resolve a long-running dispute over their sea border.
The sea frontier was demarcated by the American-led U.N. command at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War -- without consulting North Korea -- and the communist country has long demanded it be redrawn further south.
The dispute prompted deadly skirmishes between the two navies in 1999 and 2002.
South Korea has proposed that each side provide the same amount of area around the sea border for the joint fishing zone.
Later Wednesday, officials exchanged draft proposals but it will be difficult for them to produce any written agreement unless the sea border issue is resolved, pool reports said.
Another key issue expected for discussion was South Korea's wish for a military agreement with the North on security arrangements for cross-border freight train service, set to start Dec. 11, as well as other reconciliation projects.
However, the two sides were unable to begin discussing the matter Wednesday because of the sea border dispute, the reports said.
Earlier pool reports said North Korea argued that the South can achieve such agreements if it makes concessions on the sea border and other issues.
Without such an accord, the train service -- which would be the first regular rail connection between the Koreas since the peninsula was divided more than half a century ago -- cannot run.
The two Koreas' prime ministers met in Seoul earlier this month to follow up on the summit, and agreed on the freight train service and construction projects in the North. Amid the flurry of diplomacy, the North's spy chief was to make a three-day trip to South Korea beginning Thursday.
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. However, the meetings were put on hold due to a standoff over North Korea's nuclear weapons programs.
Recent progress on ending the North's nuclear ambitions has given new life to reconciliation efforts between the two sides. North Korea has begun disabling facilities at its main nuclear complex in return for energy aid and other benefits.
The top U.S. nuclear negotiator with North Korea, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, is to visit North Korea next week to inspect the disablement work at the North's nuclear complex in Yongbyon, north of Pyongyang.
