South Korean army soldiers adjust a barricade Saturday set up on Unification Bridge, which leads to the demilitarized zone, near the border village of Panmunjom in South Korea. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Friday declared his front-line troops in a “quasi-state of war” and ordered them to prepare for battle a day after the most serious confrontation between the rivals in years.

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

The closed-door meeting at Panmunjom began early Saturday evening, shortly after a deadline set by North Korea for South Korea to dismantle loudspeakers broadcasting anti-North Korean propaganda at their border, said an official from South Korea’s Unification Ministry, who didn’t want to be named because of office rules. North Korea had declared that its front-line troops were in full war readiness and prepared to go to battle if Seoul did not back down.

The South Korean presidential office said earlier that the country’s national security director, Kim Kwan-jin, and Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo would sit 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 that 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.