South and North Korea held their first high-level military talks in seven years on Wednesday, but failed to reach agreement on pending issues such as inter-Korean clashes near the tense western maritime border, Seoul's defense ministry said.

"The two Koreas held the closed-door contact involving military officials from 10 a.m. at the truce village of Panmunjom after North Korea proposed the meeting to discuss the recent exchange of fire between their patrol boats in the Yellow Sea," defense ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said.

The meeting, which ended at 3:10 p.m., failed to produce any meaningful agreements "due to the differences between the two sides," he added.

Last week, South and North Korean patrol boats briefly exchanged fire after a North Korean naval vessel violated the NLL, the de facto maritime border in the Yellow Sea. 

Heightening tensions further, the communist country on Friday fired anti-aircraft machine guns at balloons containing leaflets criticizing the authoritarian regime. After some of the shots landed south of border, the two sides traded machine gun fire. 

During Wednesday's meeting, Pyongyang demanded the South "ban its ships from entering the areas it claims as the inter-Korean sea border, stop civic groups from sending propaganda leaflets and refrain from slander including in the press," Kim said.

Drawn by the U.S.-led United Nations Command at the end of the

1950-53 Korean War, the NLL acts as the de facto sea border between the two Koreas. It is not recognized by Pyongyang. 

In response, South Korea called on the North to abide by the NLL, stressing that it is "not possible for the democratic government to control civic groups or media," according to the ministry.

"Despite being very serious throughout the talks with a will to improve the bilateral ties, the two sides failed to narrow the differences, which caused the meeting to end without specific agreements," Kim said.

South Korea was represented by Ryu Je-seung, Deputy Minister for National Defense Policy, and the North by Kim Yong-chol, who leads the Reconnaissance General Bureau, he added.  

Asked whether the two touched upon the North's sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan near the Yellow Sea border in March 2010, the ministry said Seoul "reminded the North of the fact that Pyongyang should be accountable" for the deadly incident.

In the wake of the sinking that claimed the lives of 46 South Korean sailors, the Seoul government imposed a set of sanctions against Pyongyang on May 24, 2010. The North has denied any involvement in the case. 

Dismissing Pyongyang's repeated calls, South Korea has remained firm that the North should take responsible actions before it lifts the so-called May 24 measures, which effectively halted all inter-Korean cooperation except for the joint industrial complex in the North's border town of Kaesong.

The Seoul government was silent on the talks throughout Wednesday, refusing to confirm comments from sources that military officers from the two neighbors met face to face. 

"The two sides agreed in advance not to make public the talks,"

Kim said, citing the inter-Korean ties "are now very sensitive." He also added that the two Koreas "had aimed to hold more practical talks by not making it open."

The two Koreas last held working-level military talks in February 2011 and general-level talks in December 2007.

The latest talks come some 10 days after high-ranking figures from the communist country made a surprise visit to South Korea and met with senior government officials here. The rare trip resulted in an agreement to hold another round of high-level talks in early November at the latest. (Yonhap)