2 Koreas Complete Accord on Meetings of Premiers

North and South Korea completed the details of an agreement Thursday to exchange visits by their prime ministers this year for the first time since the peninsula was divided at the end of World War II. The ministers will hold talks on reducing tension and on eventual reunification.

A government spokesman in South Korea said officials from each side met in private for two hours at the truce village of Panmunjom, 35 miles north of Seoul, and agreed on a draft accord spelling out procedural details for the meetings.

The draft agreement will be signed and exchanged between the two sides at the truce village on July 26 and the full contents disclosed, the spokesman said.

The first meeting will take place in early September when North Korean Premier Yon Hyong Muk visits Seoul, accompanied by six top government and military officials, the spokesman said.

South Korean Prime Minister Kang Young Hoon will go to the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, in mid-October, heading a seven-member delegation.

Firm dates for the two sessions will be included in the official announcement of the procedural accord.

A South Korean government source said the two countries agreed to allow airliners to fly directly between Pyongyang and Seoul for the exchange visits.

The two Koreas had agreed in principle July 3 to hold prime ministerial talks, the highest-level meeting they have ever held.

In 1972, the two countries exchanged visits by vice premier-level officials to start negotiating inter-Korean cooperation, but political differences soon got in the way and the two countries lapsed into Cold War confrontation.

Both sides say they want reunification, but the north has demanded the immediate withdrawal of 43,000 U.S. troops stationed in the south as a precondition.

Seoul could agree to a gradual pullout of U.S. troops but says a full withdrawal will be possible only when there is no threat of renewed hostilities on the peninsula.

The two countries’ premiers are expected to discuss safeguards to prevent a repetition of the 1950-53 Korean War, including setting up telephone hot lines between military commanders and prior notification of major military exercises by each side, government officials said. They said they could also discuss signing a nonaggression pact.

Seoul hopes to begin duty-free trade and business ventures as soon as possible.