By Cho Kyong Wook

SEOUL, Feb. 6 Kyodo - North and South Korea, at their 13th cabinet-level talks, which ended in Seoul on Friday, agreed to work to produce ''fruitful'' results at the upcoming second-round of six-country talks set for later this month to resolve the standoff over the North's nuclear weapons program.

The accord was contained in a six-point joint press statement issued at the end of the inter-Korean parley.

The resolution of the dispute stemming from North Korea's quest to build a nuclear arsenal dominated the talks between the two Koreas, primarily aimed at promoting bilateral reconciliation and economic cooperation.

Also agreed between the two was that the two Koreas would hold military talks ''soon'' to discuss measures to lower military tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

The two Koreas, which fought the three-year Korean War from 1950, held their first-ever defense ministers' meeting in September 2000, but a second round of high-level military talks has yet to take place.

The United States has demanded North Korea dismantle its nuclear weapons program before it can get economic and other benefits from the U.S., while North Korea wants the U.S. to offer benefits simultaneously in return for freezing of the nuclear weapons program.

The second round of the six-way nuclear talks, involving the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia, is scheduled from Feb. 25 in Beijing.

The first round, in August last year in Beijing, ended without significant progress.

The nuclear standoff erupted in October 2002 when the U.S. said North Korea had admitted to running a secret uranium enrichment program in violation of a 1994 accord with the U.S., and with other international antinuclear pacts.

At the cabinet-level talks held in a Seoul hotel from Wednesday, Kim Ryong Song, a senior North Korean cabinet councilor, headed a five-member delegation while Unification Minister Jeong Se Hyun led the five-member South Korean delegation.

According to the statement, the two sides also agreed to arrange a ninth separated-families reunion in late March at Mt. Kumgang in the North.

The temporary reunions of Korean families that have remained separated for 50 years and more have been a major part of reconciliation moves agreed on at a historic inter-Korean summit in 2000.

The two Koreas will hold their next round of ministerial talks May 4-7 in Pyongyang, according to the statement.

Also included in the statement was an agreement related to the development of an industrial complex in the North Korean city Kaesong, and a decision to continue consultation on flood prevention around their border.

Although not included the official statement, a South Korean official said after the talks that the two sides had also agreed, ''in principle,'' to march together as a ''Korean'' team during the Opening and Closing ceremonies at the Olympic Games in Athens in August.

The two countries' athletes made a first-ever ''Korean'' entrance at the previous Summer Games in Sydney in September 2000. ==Kyodo