A North Korean soldier (L) faces down a South Korean soldier in the demilitarized zone on April 24.South Korea has been seeking to resume talks on the North's nuclear programThe agenda of the planned talks between diplomats for North and South has not been disclosedThe meeting will take place on the sidelines of regional security talks, South Korean officials say(CNN) -- South Korea's chief envoy to six-party talks on ending North Korea's nuclear program is to meet with a senior North Korean diplomat on the sidelines of the ASEAN regional forum, South Korean officials say.
Wi Sung-lac, the chief negotiator for the South, has proposed holding talks with Ri Yong-ho, who is widely expected to succeed Kim Kye-gwan as the North's top envoy to the multilateral talks, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reports.
The agenda of their discussion has not been disclosed.
This is North Korea's first response to South Korea's proposal to hold nuclear talks since the beginning of this year, a South Korean foreign ministry official who did not want to be identified due to sensitivity of the matter told CNN.
North Korea pulled out of the six-party talks on nuclear disarmament in 2008.
The nations involved in the six-party talks -- the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia -- are in the Indonesian resort of Bali for the annual ASEAN gathering.
Relations between North and South Korea have been more difficult since the sinking of a South Korean warship Cheonan 15 months ago and the shelling of Yeongpyong Island last November.
But South Korea acknowledged last month having held a secret meeting with its neighbour in May, which it said was aimed at persuading it to apologize for those attacks, in which 50 South Koreans died. North Korea denies sinking the warship.
The North Korean National Defence Commission said the South had asked for a series of summits at the secret meeting.
Until now, the North has refused to discuss its nuclear program one-on-one with South Korea, as Pyongyang has sought to use its nuclear weapons program as leverage in developing relations with Washington, Yonhap reports.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to meet with representatives from South Korea and Japan while in Indonesia for the summit.CNN's Jiyeon Lee contributed to this reportView the original article here
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