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 The meeting, announced on Tuesday by Kim Eui-do, spokesman for the
Unification Ministry, was arranged with unusual speed after the
North proposed the talks in a message on Saturday.
It will be the highest level contact since 2007, when the two
Koreas, separate since the end of World War Two, held only their
second summit meeting. They are also the first such talks since the
North shelled a South Korean island in 2010 that sharply raised
tensions.
North Korea is likely to restate its demand for the cancellation of
the joint drills, as it has done at various venues in the past few
weeks, said Yang Moo-jin of the University of North Korean Studies
in Seoul.
"They will try to explain the position that family reunions and
military activities are not compatible," Yang said.
The drills, due to start later this month, are a longstanding source
of irritation for the North, which denounces them as a rehearsal for
a U.S. invasion.
The two sides have agreed to hold reunions this month of family
members separated since the 1950-53 Korean War at the Mount Kumgang
resort, just inside North Korea.
The meetings are seen as a rare confidence building move, but North
Korea has threatened to cancel the event, citing a sortie last week
by a nuclear-capable U.S. B-52 bomber.
President Park Geun-hye's deputy national security adviser will lead
the South's delegation of defense and security officials at
Wednesday's talks at the Panmunjom "truce village" on the heavily
guarded border, ministry spokesman Kim said.
The North's delegation will be headed by Won Tong Yon, a senior
official at the ruling Workers' Party of Korea's United Front
Department that handles affairs with the South.
The two Koreas remain technically at war as the Korean war ended
with an armistice signed at Panmumjom, rather than a peace treaty.
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TALKS SCRAPPED LAST YEAR
Last year, high-level talks were scrapped less than a day before
their planned start as the two sides failed to agree on who should
attend.
Tension remained high for months on the peninsula last year, with
the North threatening to attack South Korea and the United States
after the United Nations imposed tougher sanctions for Pyongyang's
latest nuclear test.
North Korea has cancelled an invitation for a senior U.S. official
to visit Pyongyang to seek the release of imprisoned U.S. missionary
Kenneth Bae. But it has showed apparent interest in reconciliation
with the South in recent months.
It was unclear whether the withdrawal of the invitation was a result
of the decision announced on Monday that the United States and South
Korea were proceeding with the drills.
China, North Korea's sole diplomatic ally, expressed concern at the
"recent reaction of relevant parties" over the drills and suggested
they would not be a welcome factor in upholding peace.
"It conforms to the common interests of all concerned parties to
preserve peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and in the
Northeast Asian region, which is also a shared responsibility,"
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a daily news
briefing.
(Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard
in Beijing; editing by Jack
Kim and Ron Popeski)
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