At the end of high-level talks, which lasted two days, North Korea said it would take "concrete steps" to end the nuclear standoff and comply with its commitments to keep the Korean peninsula free of nuclear weapons. It also agreed to resume military talks to discuss tension-reduction measures across the heavily fortified border.

In return, South Korea promised to provide rice and fertilizer aid to its famine-stricken communist neighbor. The two Koreas agreed to meet again in September to discuss further reconciliation measures.

South Korean officials said the agreement would pave the way toward resolving the nuclear issue through inter-Korean talks, saying they would consult with the United States over how to end the 32-month impasse over its nuclear weapons program.

"The South and the North agreed to take substantial steps to peacefully resolve the nuclear issue though means of dialogue if and when circumstances are provided, with the ultimate goal of making Korean peninsula nuclear free," said a 12-point joint statement read by the South's chief negotiator, Unification Minister Chung Dong-young, at the end of the Cabinet-level talks in a Seoul hotel.

The statement did not elaborate upon the "substantial steps," but South Korean negotiators said they include the dismantling of North Korea's nuclear weapons programs.

"The 'circumstances' in the statement mean that the resumption of the six-nation talks and resolution of pending issues," Kim Chun-shik, a spokesman for the South Korean delegation, told reporters.

But North Korean negotiators refused to specify when they would return to the six-party talks despite persistent calls by South Korean delegates throughout the two-day meeting.

Since last June, North Korea has boycotted the six-nation talks aimed at dismantling its nuclear weapons programs, citing "hostile" U.S. policies against it. The six nations include China, Japan, Russia, the United States and South and North Korea.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il told visiting South Korean officials last week his country could rejoin the talks as early as July "if it is certain that the United States is recognizing and respecting North Korea."

Thursday's agreement, coupled with Kim's remarks, corresponding gestures from the United States, and South Korean diplomatic efforts, sparked hopes for the resumption of the talks. Separately Wednesday, Washington said it would provide 50,000 tons of food to North Korea through the World Food Program, but refused to link it to the ongoing deadlock.

On Thursday, the chief U.S. nuclear envoy, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, said Pyongyang would get respect and equal treatment if it returned, expressing hope he could visit North Korea to meet its leader, Kim Jong Il, to discuss ways to break the impasse.

In a message posted at the Web site of the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, Hill said he was "more than willing to meet Chairman (of the National Defense Commission) Kim Jong Il."

"If we can agree on a date -- I hope in the month of July -- the U.S. side looks forward to returning to the negotiating table to conclude these talks with the sense of respect and equality that all good negotiations must have," he said.

In Brussels, South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon met his U.S. counterpart, Condoleezza Rice, to discuss the North Korea. In the meeting, Ban asked Rice to soften Washington's stance toward the North to keep the hard-won reconciliatory momentum.

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun Thursday invited North Korean delegates to the high-level talks to the presidential Blue House and delivered a message to the North Korean leader to make a decision to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue "as early as possible."

South Korea also promised to provide massive food and fertilizer aid to the famine-hit North.

"The South agreed to provide food aid to the North on humanitarian considerations," the joint statement said.

The two sides will conduct lower-level talks on the amount of food aid, it said. North Korean delegates have reportedly requested 400,000 tons of food and 150,000 tons of fertilizer. South Korea has already sent 200,000 tons of fertilizer aid to the North this year.

Under Thursday's agreement, military generals will meet on the North's Mount Paekdu, bordering China, to discuss tension-reduction measures. They would set the date in future negotiations.

The two sides also have Red Cross talks to discuss the whereabouts of South Korean prisoners of war and other Koreans missing during the 1950-53 Korean War, a sensitive issue previously rejected the North. Seoul's Defense Ministry estimates 538 former South Korean POWs were still captive in North Korea as of December last year.

The two sides also agreed to hold another round of Cabinet talks Sept. 13-16 on the North's Mount Paekdu, which will be followed by another session in December in the South.

In a sign of fledgling inter-Korean cooperation, chief negotiators from the two nations announced the agreement in a joint news conference -- the first since they held Cabinet-level meetings since 2000. In the previous 14 rounds of talks, the two sides announced their results separately, with suspicions about separate interpretation.

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