How long will this round of "peace" last in Korea?

North and South Korea reach an agreement to dissipate tensions:

An agreement was announced early Tuesday to end a standoff between North Korea and South Korea that had threatened to escalate into a full-scale military confrontation, South Korean officials said.

Kim Kwan-jin, South Korean President Park Geun-hye's national security adviser, said North Korea expressed regret over its provocations and pledged to stop them. Specifically, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported that Pongyang said it regrets that two South Korean soldiers were injured in a land mine explosion earlier this month.

In return, Seoul agreed to halt anti-North Korean messages being broadcast across the border, Kim said.

The deal came hours after Park warned that South Korea would continue the broadcasts and take other, undefined measures unless North Korea offered a clear apology and promised not to stage any more provocations.

Marathon talks had been underway in the border village of Panmunjom. The two Koreas also agreed to hold talks in coming months aimed at improving ties and reuniting families separated by the Korean War.

Tensions had been rising on the heavily armed Korean Peninsula since the two countries exchanged artillery fire Thursday. North Korea had said it was mobilizing troops and threatened "all-out war" if South Korea did not halt the propaganda broadcasts.

Yonhap in recent days has been reporting unusually extensive movement of North Korean submarines and other assets.

Pyongyang has pressed South Korea to remove the loudspeakers, but a deadline set for Saturday passed without incident. Lengthy talks between the two Koreas are not unusual.

Seoul had resumed the broadcasts after an 11-year hiatus in response to the mine blast. Pyongyang has denied South Korea claims that the North placed mines in the Demilitarized Zone in violation of the treaty that halted the Korean War in 1953.

Before the deal was announced, South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se said his nation's goal is to ensure that North Korea does not carry out further provocations, Yonhap said. He made the remarks during a meeting with U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., who is spending five days in South Korea.

"We take these violations very seriously," Yun said. "During this very high-level meetings, we're trying to make this point very clear so that we can avoid, prevent these kinds of violations in the future."

Rangel expressed full support for Seoul's efforts.

About 28,500 American troops are based in South Korea, many of them close to the Demilitarized Zone that separates the two countries. North Korea and South Korea technically remain at war after the Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty. The two neighbors have periodically clashed — sometimes with deadly consequences.

U.S. and South Korean troops have been on heightened alert since the land mine incident. Coincidentally, about 80,000 U.S. and South Korean troops are engaged in an annual training exercise along the border area this week.

http://www.militarytimes.com/story/news/world/2015/08/24/korea-talks-continue/32250565/