SEOUL, March 3 (Xinhuanet) -- South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) concluded their general-level military talks on Friday without agreement due to differences over their disputed sea border in the Yellow Sea.

    The two-day meeting, started on Thursday, was held at the DPRK's building named Tongilgak in the border village of Panmunjom inside the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), South Korean Yonhap News Agency reported.

    The two sides had fundamental difference over the disputed inter-Korean sea border, or the Northern Limit Line (NLL), said the report.

    In the latest round of the inter-Korean general-level talks, the third one of its kind, the DPRK insisted on redrawing the inter-Korean border in the Yellow Sea, said Yonhap.

    However, South Korean side wanted to discuss the issue of establishing a joint fishing area around the NLL. The waters around the controversial border has abundant fishery resources.

    The NLL was marked after the 1950-1953 Korean War by the United Nations Command. South Korea viewed it as the inter-Korean western sea border, while the DPRK has not accepted the concept.

    The navies of the two sides once had two clashes in 1999 and 2002 around the NLL waters, which resulted in heavy casualties on both sides.

    The two sides even did not agree on the date of next round of the talks, said Yonhap.

    The result of Friday's meeting cast cloud over a plan of South Korean former President Kim Dae-jung who has delivered his hope to the DPRK that he wants to visit Pyongyang in June by train.

    The Nobel Peace Prize winner visited Pyongyang aboard plane in June 2000 and met with the DPRK top leader Kim Jong Il. Pyongyang is yet to endorse Kim Dae-jung's new visiting plan.

    South Korean Defense Ministry originally expected to discuss the issue of how to provide security guarantee of the passage of trains across the inter-Korean land border.

    South Korea and the DPRK have relinked two inter-Korean rail lines, one through the western section of the border and the other across the eastern part. But they have yet to undergo test-runs ofthe railway.

    Maj. Gen. Han Min-gu led South Korean delegation and Maj. Gen. Kim Yong Chol headed the DPRK team in the latest round of the military talks.

    South Korea and the DPRK have held two rounds of general-grade military talks in the summer of 2004.

    In the two previous rounds of talks, the two sides agreed on a set of tension-reducing measures such as dismantlement of propaganda facilities along the land border called the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) but those agreements were not fully implemented. Enditem