North and South Korea will hold working-level military talks on February 8, the defence ministry said on Tuesday, in their first contact since the North's deadly shelling of a border island last November.
The talks will set the date, place and agenda for a higher-level military meeting, possibly between defence ministers.
But Seoul said the high-level meeting would only go ahead if Pyongyang took responsibility for two attacks on the South last year and promised no repetition.
Apart from the shelling of Yeonpyeong island, which killed four people including civilians, the South accuses the North of torpedoing a warship last March with the loss of 46 lives -- a charge the North denies.
The date for the working-level talks is a compromise after the South proposed February 11 and the North suggested February 1.