SEOUL (AFP) -- South and North Korea will resume high-level military talks next week after a 21-month hiatus, to discuss reducing tension and building confidence between the Cold War rivals, officials said Tuesday.

The general-level talks will take place for two days from Thursday next week at Panmunjom, a war-torn village on the inter-Korean border where the 1953 armistice agreement was negotiated.

"The agenda of the talks will include ways of bolstering measures that have already been agreed upon to avoid accidental armed clashes in the Yellow Sea," an official of the Defense Ministry told journalists.

The last meeting of the intermittent military talks was held in June 2004 when the two sides struck an agreement on measures to reduce tension, including establishing a hotline to avoid naval clashes.

Economic exchanges between the two Korea, which agreed only a ceasefire and not a formal peace accord to end the 1950-1953 Korean War, have greatly increased following an inter-Korean summit in 2000.

But North Korea has balked at high-level military talks with the South while it is locked in a tense standoff with the United States over its nuclear weapons program.

North Korea has stayed away from further general-level talks, citing various issues including South Korea's joint military exercises with the United States.

U.S. and South Korean troops are to stage annual joint war games in March.

At their first meeting in 2004, military generals from the two Koreas agreed on a range of measures to prevent naval clashes in the Yellow Sea and to stop propaganda broadcasts along the 248-kilometer (154-mile) border.

The measures included setting up a telephone hotline, sharing a radio frequency, using joint signaling systems and exchanging information on illicit fishing in the area.