SEOUL (AP) -- Top military officials from North and South Korea began talks at a border village Wednesday on a joint fishing zone and other projects aimed at improving ties between the rival nations.

Two-star generals from the sides planned to consult on how to allow fishermen from both countries to fish around their disputed maritime border off the Korean peninsula's west coast, a zone where their navies fought bloody skirmishes in 1999 and 2002, the South's Defense Ministry has said.
They also planned to firm up security arrangements for other cross-border projects in the three days of talks that run through Friday at the truce village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone that divides the peninsula.
The leaders of the two Koreas held the second-ever summit in October, producing a wide-ranging accord on further boosting cross-border projects and bringing reconciliation to their divided countries.
""I hope the matter of communication, customs and border crossing is resolved so that various cooperation projects as agreed under the summit declaration will go well,"" South Korea's chief delegate Lee Hong-kee said at the start of talks.
Kim Yong Chol, North Korea's top negotiator, noted that some people viewed the talks as a waste of time because little progress was usually made.
""The perception about these talks are not very good. They're considered as accomplishing little when you consider the number of times we're meeting,"" he said.
The talks come two weeks after the defense chiefs of the two rival Koreas held their first meeting in seven years in Pyongyang.
The ministers agreed on security arrangements that enabled Tuesday's opening of regular cargo train service across their heavily armed border for the first time in more than a half-century. However, they failed to produce an agreement on the joint fishing zone, which may emerge as a possible deal-breaker in this week's talks.
South Korea has proposed that the zone extend on both sides of the border, but North Korea has argued that it should only be to the south.
North Korea does not recognize the current sea boundary, which was drawn unilaterally at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War by the then-commander of UN forces, and has long demanded it be redrawn farther south.