North, South Korea reach agreement to ease tensions Tuesday August 25,2015

North and South Korea reached agreement early on Tuesday August 25,2015 to end a standoff involving an exchange of artillery fire that had pushed the divided peninsula into a state of heightened military tension. 

Under the accord reached in the very early hours of Tuesday after more than two days of talks, North Korea expressed regret over the recent wounding of South Korean soldiers in landmine blasts and Seoul agreed to halt anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts

South Korean defence ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said both sides would begin rolling back heightened military postures at noon (0300 GMT), when the loudspeaker broadcasts will formally halt and the North's state of war status will be lifted. 

South Korean National Security Adviser Kim Kwan-jin (R), South Korean Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo (2nd R), Secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea Kim Yang Gon (2nd L), and Hwang Pyong-so (L), the top military aide to the North's leader Kim Jong Un, shake hands after the inter-Korean high-level talks at the truce village of Panmunjom inside the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas.