PYONGYANG, North Korea — South Korea and North Korea were holding their first high-level talks in nearly a year at a border village today to defuse mounting tensions that have pushed the rivals to the brink of a possible military confrontation.

The closed-door meeting at Panmunjom, where the armistice ending fighting in the Korean War was agreed to in 1953, began today, shortly after a deadline set by North Korea for the South to dismantle loudspeakers broadcasting anti-North Korean propaganda at their border, said an official from South Korea’s Unification Ministry.

North Korea had declared its front-line troops were in full war readiness and prepared to go to battle if Seoul did not back down.

At the meeting, South Korea’s presidential national security director, Kim Kwan-jin, and Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo sat down with Hwang Pyong So, the top political officer for the Korean People’s Army, and Kim Yang Gon, a senior North Korean official responsible for South Korean affairs.

Hwang is considered by outside analysts to be North Korea’s second most important official after supreme leader Kim Jong Un.

The meeting came as a series of incidents raised fears the conflict could spiral out of control, starting with a land mine attack, allegedly by the North, that maimed two South Korean soldiers and the South’s resumption of anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts.

By The Associated Press