South and North Korea agree deal to reduce tensions

South Korea has halted its propaganda broadcasts into North Korea as part of a deal to defuse tension, the BBC reports.

Seoul had begun the loudspeaker broadcasts, which infuriate Pyongyang, after a landmine at the border injured two of its soldiers earlier this month.

The tensions bubbled over in a brief exchange of fire at the heavily guarded border last Thursday.

The deal was reached after the North, which initially denied planting the mine, agreed to express “regret.”

South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye said the deal “could serve as an occasion to resolve all inter-Korean issues through trust”.