The U.S.-led United Nations Command is expected to accept North Korea's proposal that military officers from the two sides hold talks over the sinking of a South Korean warship, a Seoul official said Sunday.
North Korea proposed Friday that colonel-grade officers of the two sides meet at the border village of Panmunjom on July 13 to discuss setting up general-level talks about the March sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan.
The move was a counterproposal to the UNC's offer in June to hold military talks with the North to explain the outcome of a multinational investigation that found the communist regime responsible for the torpedo attack that sank the Cheonan and killed 46 sailors.
"Chances are high that the North-UNC meeting will take place," a senior official at the South's defense ministry said. "A working-level meeting can be held on July 13 as proposed by the North or it could be scheduled for a later date than that."
North Korea, which claims it had nothing to do with the Cheonan's sinking, had turned down the UNC's proposal in June, demanding instead that the South accept a team of North Korean inspectors to verify the results of the international probe.
Pyongyang has accused Seoul of fabricating the investigation's outcome.