S. Korea, DPRK officials met secretly last week: Yonhap

SEOUL, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- Senior officials from South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) met secretly in Kaesong, a border city of the DPRK, last week, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency on Wednesday quoted a government source as saying.

"A senior official of Seoul's Unification Ministry met with his North Korean (DPRK) counterpart in Kaesong on Nov. 7 for discussions on pending inter-Korean issues," the source said on condition of anonymity.

During the meeting, the two sides likely exchanged views on issues such as the DPRK's nuclear issue, humanitarian aid from Seoul, reunions of separated families and the resumption of South Korean tourism programs in the DPRK, Yonhap said.

There have been no inter-governmental talks between the two Koreas since two separate meetings in Kaesong on Oct. 14 and 16, which focused on river flood prevention and resuming separated family reunions respectively.

However, local media reported that senior officials of the two countries held a secret meeting in Singapore around Oct. 20, during which the two side discussed conditions and possibility of holding an inter-Korean summit, and the South Korean government did not deny the related reports.

Local media said the latest meeting in Kaesong, held just before the United States announced its plan to send Stephen Bosworth, special U.S. representative for the DPRK policy, to Pyongyang for a visit, is aimed to discuss the possibility of launching inter-Korean high-level talks in tandem with the upcoming U.S.-DPRK bilateral talks.