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North and South Korea pledge peace-1

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The leaders of North and South Korea signed a historic joint declaration on Thursday in Pyongyang pledging a commitment to peace talks and a range of economic ties, reported Yonhap from Seoul.
(Recasts para 3, adds details in paras 4-5)

SEOUL, October 4 (RIA Novosti) - The leaders of North and South Korea signed a historic joint declaration on Thursday in Pyongyang pledging a commitment to peace talks and a range of economic ties, reported Yonhap from Seoul.

The document, signed by North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun at only the second-ever summit between the two countries, calls on the two Koreas to "end military hostility and ensure peace and the easing of tension on the Korean peninsula."

The North and South likewise promised to increase economic ties, open a railway service across their heavily armed border, and create a joint fishing zone in the Yellow Sea to thwart armed clashes between North and South Korean servicemen near the so-called Northern Limit Line.

An agreement was reached at the summit to discuss the latter issue at a meeting between the two countries' defense ministers this November.

Yonhap also reported that the leaders of North and South Korea agreed to further negotiations, this time between their respective prime ministers, in Seoul in November 2007.

The two Koreas have been technically at war since the 1950-53 Korean War. However, any formal peace treaty would require the participation of the United States and China, which were also involved in the conflict. The U.S. has so far been reluctant to discuss a peace treaty until the North fully discontinues its nuclear program.

The three-day summit began on Tuesday, when President Roh Moo-hyun traveled to the North by car and symbolically walked across the demarcation line.

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