The rare encounter came hours after Pyongyang vowed to
strengthen its nuclear deterrent in response to what it called US threats.
A team of international investigators concluded in May that
a North Korean torpedo sank the Cheonan warship near the two Koreas' disputed
western sea border in March, killing 46 sailors. North Korea denies involvement
and has threatened war if it is punished for the disaster.
On Thursday, South Korea pressed North Korea to immediately
acknowledge and apologize for the sinking and punish those responsible, the
ministry said in a statement after the talks in the Demilitarized Zone that
divides the peninsula.
"North Korea's responsible measures over the sinking of
the Cheonan are a key to resolve the issue," the ministry said.
South Korea also urged the North to halt military threats
and provocations near the disputed western sea border, as well as the North's
slander of South Korean authorities, the ministry said.
The poorly marked western sea border, drawn by the United
Nations at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, is a constant source of tension
between the two Koreas.
Seoul has repeatedly rejected the North's long-standing
demands that the sea border be changed. The navies of the two Koreas engaged in
three bloody skirmishes near the area in 1999, 2002 and 2009.
North Korea responded that it cannot accept the result of an
international investigation and reiterated its long-standing demand that its
own investigators be allowed to go to South Korea to examine the results.
The North also called on the South to rein in activists who
spread anti-North Korean leaflets. Pyongyang also claimed that South Korean
navy vessels regularly violate the western sea border.
The North said inter-Korean relations depend on how South
Korea handles the two issues, according to the ministry.
At the United Nations, North Korean Vice Foreign Minister
Pak Kil Yon said Wednesday that Pyongyang would continue to expand its nuclear
arsenal in order to deter what it perceives as American and South Korean
aggression in the region.
"As long as the US nuclear aircraft carriers sail
around the seas of our country, our nuclear deterrent can never be abandoned
but should be strengthened further," Pak said.
The North has routinely issued similar announcements. The
latest one came after North Korean leader Kim Jong Il this week promoted his
youngest son, Kim Jong Un, to a four-star general and also gave him key
political posts aimed at an eventual succession.
Kim Jong Il took over the communist country in 1994 after
the death of his father, the North's founder Kim Il Sung.
The talks also come as South Korea and the US hold naval
drills in the Yellow Sea off the west coast of the Korean peninsula, near where
the South Korean ship sank.
Separately, a South Korean civic group and labor union sent
100 tons of rice to the North on Thursday to help ease food shortages following
devastating flooding and damage from a typhoon, according to the group, the
Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation.
