North and South Korea took a step back from a looming military clash Saturday, agreeing to hold top-level talks as their respective armies faced off across the border on maximum alert.

North and South Korea took a step back from a looming military clash Saturday, agreeing to hold top-level talks as their respective armies faced off across the border on maximum alert.

The agreement on the talks -- to be held at the border truce village of Panmunjom -- came just hours before the expiry of a North Korean ultimatum for Seoul to halt loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts across the border or face military action.

The four delegates -- two from each side -- will include the South Korean president's national security adviser, Kim Kwan-Jin, and the man widely seen as North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un's number two, Hwang Pyong-So.

The presidential Blue House in Seoul said the talks were set to begin at 6:00 pm (0900 GMT).

The announcement came with both Koreas bracing for a confrontation as the clock ticked down to the North's 0830 GMT deadline.

Seoul had insisted it would not accede to Pyongyang's demand to turn off the loudspeakers which have been blasting propaganda messages into North Korea for the past week.

The North Korean People's Army (KPA) said it had moved into a "fully armed, wartime state" on the orders of Kim Jong-Un, while the foreign ministry in Pyongyang warned Saturday that the situation had "reached the brink of war" and was "hardly controllable".