SEOUL, South Korea - Military officers from the two Koreas were still meeting Friday after failing to iron out differences in marathon negotiations overnight aimed at making security arrangements for a historic test-run of trains on cross-border railways.
The talks were running for nearly 24 hours since Thursday, but there were few signs of headway.
Officials have said the two sides were in agreement on making security arrangements for next week's rail test, but it was not clear from pool reports what is holding up the sides from adopting a formal agreement.
The Chosun Ilbo newspaper said it was because North Korea was demanding that the South commit to talks on redrawing their disputed sea border off the divided peninsula's west coast.
In an apparent attempt to put pressure on the South negotiators, the North's navy command issued a warning Thursday that a skirmish near the maritime border - the scene of deadly clashes in 1999 and 2002 - could occur at any time unless Seoul stops entering what the North called its territorial waters.
North Korea doesn't recognize the current sea border demarcated by the United Nations at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, and has long claimed it should be further south.
The planned rail test would be the first time trains have crossed the tightly sealed border in more than half a century. Inter-Korean rail links were severed in the middle of the 1950-53 Korean War, but two tracks have been reconnected as part of a series of reconciliation projects launched since the two sides held the first-ever summit of their leaders in 2000.
Economic officials from both sides agreed last month to conduct the train run May 17, but North Korea's military has the final say on whether it goes forward because such a border crossing requires security arrangements.
The test would be a single run of trains along two restored tracks on each side of the peninsula.
South Korea hopes the inter-Korean railways could ultimately be linked to Russia's Trans-Siberian railroad and allow an overland route connecting the peninsula to Europe - significantly cutting delivery times for freight that now requires sea transport.
This week's talks, which had been scheduled to end Thursday, are the first high-level military contacts between the two sides in a year. The two Koreas remain technically at war because the Korean War ended in a cease-fire that has never been replaced with a peace treaty.
Ties between the two sides have warmed significantly since the 2000 summit, although they suffered during the international standoff over North Korea's nuclear ambitions.
Pyongyang conducted its first-ever nuclear test in October, chilling relations with the South. But the South began embracing the North again after Pyongyang agreed in February to shut down its nuclear reactor under an agreement with the United States and four other neighbors.
Still, the communist regime missed an April deadline to close the reactor because of a separate financial dispute with the United States and it is unclear when it will do so.
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