N. Korea, UN command hold talks over ship sinking

Military officers from North Korea and he U.S.-led UN Command were meeting Thursday to discuss the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship amid promising signs that tensions are easing on the Korean peninsula.

Colonel-level officers were holding talks, their fifth session since the March incident blamed on Pyongyang, at the border village of Panmunjom inside the Demilitarized Zone, UN Command spokesman Kim Yong-kyu said.

Seoul, meanwhile, was considering whether to accept a proposal from Pyongyang to hold military talks next week to discuss the maritime border and anti-North Korean leaf letting by activists, a Defense Ministry official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.

The working-level military talks between the two Koreas would be the first since October 2008.

South Korean activists and defectors regularly send leaflets across the heavily armed frontier in a campaign to urge North Koreans to rise up against leader Kim Jong Il.

South Korean provincial government and civic groups said they sent 530 tons of flour to North Korea on Thursday to help ease food shortages in the North, which is reeling from flooding and devastation from a recent typhoon, officials said.

The South Korean Red Cross also announced plans to send 5,000 tons of rice, 10,000 tons of cement, medicine and other items to help the North recover from heavy flooding in its northwest.

The Korean peninsula remains in a state of war because their three-year conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, in 1953.

Tensions have been high since the 1,200-ton Cheonan went down near the Koreas' disputed western sea border. Forty-six sailors died.

An international team of investigators concluded that a North Korean torpedo sank the warship in an incident the U.S.-led UN Command, which oversees the cease-fire, considers a violation of the armistice.

The UN Command has proposed creating a joint task force to discuss the "armistice violations."

North Korea, which denies any involvement in the sinking of the Cheonan, has demanded its own investigators be allowed to visit South Korea to examine the results. Seoul has rejected the North's requests.

Meanwhile, North Korea appeared to have postponed a rare political meeting believed aimed at promoting a son of leader Kim Jong Il, an official and aid group said, amid speculation that devastation from recent flooding has forced the delay.

State media reported last week that Workers' Party delegates were gathering in Pyongyang to elect new party leaders in what would be the communist party's biggest meeting in 30 years. Analysts believe Kim, 68, will use the conference to give his youngest son, Kim Jong Un, a key party position as part of plans to groom him as his successor.