Seoul: North Korea has agreed to take part in this year's Asian Games in South Korea in another sign of a thawing in its relations with the South, officials said on Sunday.

The agreement came at talks between South and North Korean government delegates at the North's scenic Mount Kumgang resort on the agenda and date for minister-level talks between the estranged countries.

The Asian Games, Asia's biggest sporting carnival, start in the southern port city of Busan on September 29 and end on October 14.

North Korea is the only country of the 43-member Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), which has not submitted an entry list for the Games. In all, 11,260 athletes and executives from 42 countries have confirmed their participation in the event, the Busan Asian Games Organizing Committee said.

Two weeks ago, a senior OCA executive member said North Korean officials had made it clear that the government would not allow a delegation to go to the South to join the event.

The Yonhap news agency said, on Sunday organising committee chairman Jeong Soon-taek had urged his North Korean counterpart Jang Ung-Jeong last November and in June this year for talks on the North's participation in the Games.

In a June 21 letter to Jang, Jeong proposed sending South Korean torch carriers to obtain the sacred flame from Mount Paekdu, in the North.

Agencies