Military talks start on North Korea

The top military leaders from the United States and South Korea have begun talks in Seoul on the Korean peninsula's security worries following a deadly North Korean artillery strike last month.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, General Han Min-koo, is meeting his American counterpart, Navy Admiral Mike Mullen. Mullen and Han are their militaries' top uniformed officers.

The two are expected to discuss ways to deter future North Korean aggression.

The meeting comes amid tensions that have erupted on the divided peninsula after North Korea's November 23 artillery barrage on a South Korean island near their disputed western sea border. The attack killed two South Korean marines and two civilians.

Meanwhile, South Korea's president promised on Tuesday to transform five islands that lie along the tense maritime border with North Korea into "military fortresses" impervious to the kind of deadly attack the rival neighbour launched last month.

As the Government in Seoul struggles to counter the widespread impression its response was too weak and too slow, the new defence minister also ordered his top commanders to retaliate with force if attacked.

President Lee Myung-bak has demanded upgraded rules of engagement to allow the military to respond more forcefully to provocations since the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island, a tiny enclave of military bases and fishing communities along the Koreas' disputed western sea border. He has also reinforced troops stationed on the island.

The attack was  the first since the 1950-53 Korean War to target a civilian area.

The two Koreas remain in a technical state of war because their three-year conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. North Korea disputes the maritime border drawn by UN forces in 1953, and considers the waters around the front-line islands its territory.

North Korea said it launched its attack after Seoul refused to stop live-fire drills in the disputed waters. Similar exercises were held around the Korean peninsula Tuesday, though not in the disputed waters.

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