At the same time, officials from both countries met in the North Korean border town of Kaesong and agreed to resume next month reunions of families split by the Korean War. Reunions had been halted after the sinking of a South Korean warship in March.

Relations between the two Koreas have soured since conservative President Lee Myun-bak’s election in 2008, and then sank to their lowest point at the start of the year with the sinking of a South Korean warship, killing 46 sailors.

Former US President Jimmy Carter, who visited Pyongyang last month, said the North was now sending a clear and strong signal to Washington and Seoul that it wanted to restart aid-for-disarmament talks.

Seoul, with Washington’s backing, accused Pyongyang of torpedoing its warship in March, and responded with toughened sanctions against its already weak economy and by staging a series of intimidating joint military drills off the peninsula.

Pyongyang denies it sank the South’s vessel, but there have been signs of a thaw since North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s surprise trip to ally China late last month.

Analysts say Kim went to China to secure aid for his economy — still reeling from a botched currency reform last year that triggered inflation and wiped out ordinary people’s savings — and to win support for his son Kim Jong-un’s succession.

Compounding the North’s woes, two months of flooding has hit food production that even in a good year falls a million tons short of what is needed to feed its 23 million people.

Seoul this week announced its first substantial aid package to its neighbor in more than two years after flooding killed dozens, destroyed thousands of homes and devastated farmland.

On Friday, nine trucks carrying rice crossed the border at Paju, the second shipment inside a day after truckloads of flour headed into North Korea.

In recent weeks, the North has made a series of conciliatory gestures, including releasing a South Korean fishing boat and its crew, as well as an American jailed in the North, and said it wanted to restart the so-called six-party talks joining the two Koreas, the US, Japan, Russia and host China.