Korean talks end without agreement

The South's defence ministry said it could not immediately confirm the report.

The working-level talks at the border village of Panmunjom were the first inter-Korean dialogue since the North's deadly shelling of a South Korean island on 23 November 2010.

They were intended to set the date and agenda for higher-level military dialogue aimed at easing months of tensions.

"The talks collapsed over differences over the agenda for high-level talks," a defence ministry official was quoted as saying by Yonhap.

"They broke up without setting a date for further preliminary talks."

Colonels from the two Koreas, still technically at war because an armistice not a treaty ended the 1950-53 Korean War, had met at the truce village of Panmunjom to set the time and agenda for more senior dialogue.

The South demanded the North acknowledge its role in two deadly attacks against the South last year that killed 50 people, but the North refused to discuss the issue, local media reported.