PANMUNJOM, JULY 24, SPA -- The two Koreas ended the openingday of high-level military talks in bitter disagreement onTuesday, as North Korea renewed its long-running demandthat the western sea border with the South be redrawn, REPORTED AP. The sea border dispute has been widely considered a dealbreaker in this week's talks set to run through Thursday. North Korea does not recognize the current sea borderdemarcated by the United Nations at the end of the 1950-53Korean War, and claims the border is too far north. South Korea has rejected the North's claim, saying thecurrent border should be respected. «The South side is persistently evading the fundamentalsolution to the issue of preventing clashes in the waters»off the peninsula's west coast, the North's chief delegate,Lt. Gen. Kim Yong Chol, told his South Korean counterpart,according to the North's Korean Central News Agency. Kim was echoing the North's long-held position thatredrawing the disputed boundary is the key to preventingskirmishes in the waters near the border _ the scene ofdeadly clashes in 1999 and 2002. The South Korean delegation said it rejected the North'sdemand for a new sea border. «We stressed again that our position ... is firm,» saidCol. Moon Sung-mook, spokesman for the South's delegation. The talks began Tuesday morning at the truce village ofPanmunjom in the middle of the Demilitarized Zone runningbetween North and South, and ended for the day just threehours later.--SPA www.spa.gov.sa/470012