North Korea agrees to US proposal for talks on recovering war dead

North Korea said Friday that it accepted a proposal by the United States for talks on restarting the US recovery of its dead from the 1950-53 Korean War, according to dpa. The two countries' militaries were arranging the discussions, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported, quoting a Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman. The joint search for the remains of US soldiers was halted six years ago after the United States said it was concerned about the safety of its workers involved in the search and recovery operations. The acceptance of the US proposal came a few hours after the US State Department announced it would send 900,000 dollars in aid supplies to North Korea through private organizations. The aid would go to victims of September flooding, it said. Observers in Seoul said they believed the announcement by Pyongyang was a reconciliatory gesture. US teams exhumed the remains of more than 220 US soldiers from 1996 to 2005. More than 33,000 US soldiers were killed in the Korean War, and more than 8,000 are listed as missing. Representatives from the US and North Korea met in July to discuss the resumption of six-nation talks aimed at halting the North's nuclear weapons programme. North Korea walked away from the talks involving the two Koreas, the US, Japan, China and Russia, and the six countries have not met since late 2008.