S.Korea proposes high-level talks with North Korea next week at border truce village

South Korea has proposed high-level talks next week with rival North Korea to discuss resuming reunions of Korean War-divided families.

Seoul's Unification Ministry in a statement Monday said it suggested meeting Aug. 19 at the North Korean side of the truce border village of Panmunjom. The Koreas last had a high-level meeting in February.

Since then, North Korea has conducted an unusually large number of missile and artillery tests. Pyongyang has also insulted South Korea's leader, calling her a prostitute, and expressed fury over U.S.-South Korean military drills.

The latest six-day family reunions in February were the first such meetings in more than three years.

The Korean Peninsula is technically in a state of war because the Korean War ended in 1953 with an armistice, not a peace treaty.