The rare inter-Korean talks resumed on Sunday and stretched into the late evening as the two sides struggled to reach a compromise to defuse tensions on the peninsula, with Pyongyang warning of military actions to stop Seoul’s propaganda broadcasts.

Held at South Korea’s House of Peace in the border village of Panmunjeom, the high-level talks began at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday and continued until 4:15 a.m. on Sunday. After what they called an “adjournment,” the talks resumed at 3:30 p.m. the same day.

The North proposed the talks Friday apparently to stall for time after issuing a 48-hour ultimatum the previous day for Seoul to turn off its propaganda loudspeakers, which conservatives here called an “unacceptable, humiliating” demand.

The two sides held “comprehensive discussions on ways to resolve recent incidents and to develop inter-Korean relations for the future,” Cheong Wa Dae spokesperson Min Kyung-wook told reporters after the adjournment.

Kim Kwan-jin, chief of Cheong Wa Dae’s National Security Office, and Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo represented the South Korean side, while Hwang Pyong-so, the director of the North Korean military’s General Political Bureau, and Kim Yang-gon, a secretary of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party and top official in charge of inter-Korean issues, attended the meeting.

The resumption of the dialogue on Sunday afternoon indicated that both sides were willing to defuse tension. But they had an intense war of nerves over a set of issues including the Aug. 4 land mine attack that inflicted severe injuries on two South Korean troops and caused the South to resume the propaganda broadcasts.

During the talks, the South apparently demanded that the North recognize its responsibility for the land mine provocation, apologize for it, reprimand those who masterminded it and take steps to prevent a recurrence.

But Pyongyang has denied responsibility, calling it a “fabrication” -- as it did for the torpedo attack on the South Korean warship Cheonan in 2010 that killed 46 sailors.

During the talks, the North Korean side was thought to have demanded that Seoul immediately turn off the loudspeakers that it turned on to resume its propaganda broadcasts on Aug. 10 for the first time in 11 years, in retaliation for the North’s land mine attacks.

The North has been sensitive to the South’s propaganda activities along the border aimed at enabling North Korean troops and citizens living along the border to realize the dictatorial nature of the regime. Pyongyang has thus called the propaganda broadcasts a “threat to its (communist) system.” Amid Pyongyang’s denial of its responsibility, speculation grew that the two Koreas could form a compromise that would allow the communist regime to express regrets over the land mine incident without specifying its responsibility.

Observers say the North might have also demanded during the talks that South Korea and the U.S. stop the ongoing joint military drills, called Ulchi Freedom Guardian, which the North has long criticized as a rehearsal for a nuclear war against it.

The agenda was also expected to include Seoul’s demands to exchange the lists of family members separated across the border and hold their reunions.

During her Liberation Day speech on Aug. 15, President Park Geun-hye called for the exchange of the lists. Seoul’s Unification Ministry has been seeking to deliver to the North the list of some 60,000 South Korean family members who claim to have their loves ones in the North.

Seoul has long viewed the issue as an urgent humanitarian one, but Pyongyang put forward conditions for the family reunions, such as the lifting of the so-called May 24 economic sanctions against it.

Meanwhile, Pyongyang’s state media churned out reports to forge the warlike atmosphere on the peninsula, stressing that its troops were ready to fight while repeating their routine criticism of South Korea. Analysts said the reports appeared intended to boost the spirits of the North Korean delegation holding talks with the South.

“Eight million adolescents’ hearts are burning with the determination to take revenge (against the South),” a report on the Rodong Sinmun, the daily of the North’s Workers’ Party, said.

By Song Sang-ho (sshluck@heraldcorp.com)