A test run of a train through the demilitarized zone is set for next week and North Korea agreed to provide military security guarantees for the test, Yonhap news agency reported.

The agreement was reached after lengthy military talks on the North Korean side of Panmunjom truce village and is seen as a symbolic breakthrough for South Korea's seven-year policy of engagement with Pyongyang, although the Koreans technically remain in a state of war, the report said.

Yonhap said the North's chief delegate sought to play down the significance, but a joint statement said," The two sides have shared the view that preventing military conflict and creating a joint fishing zone in the West Sea is an issue to be urgently resolved in the course of easing military tension and establishing peace."

On Thursday, a train carrying 100 people is scheduled to run across the border dividing the two countries.