North and South Korea agree to new talks

South Korea — South and North Korea agreed on Saturday to resume high-level talks this year, raising hopes for a thaw in the long-tense relations on the divided Korean Peninsula. A statement from South Korea did not specify what would be discussed. But South Korea had proposed in August that senior officials meet to discuss a new round of reunions of family members separated by the Korean War six decades ago, a program that has proceeded in fits and starts for years as inter-Korean relations have fluctuated.The North had rejected the August overture, insisting that Seoul first stop activists in the South from sending balloons into North Korea bearing antigovernment propaganda.