North and South Koreas held secret meeting: Report

Reports say that North and South Korea held secret talks last week to arrange a possible inter-Korean summit after months of hostility.

The meeting to arrange the summit was held either in Singapore or China, South Korean papers quoting government sources said on Friday.

South Korea's Unification Minister Hyun In-taek was addressing lawmakers during the annual parliamentary audit of the ministry on the same day and was reluctant to comment on the media reports of the secret meeting.

He only said that his government was open to an inter-Korean summit. "With respect to the summit, we need to take various conditions such as progress on the DPRK (the Democratic People's Republic of Korea) nuclear issue and whether the inter-Korean relations will be able to develop sincerely," he said.

Meanwhile, some reports say negotiations hit a snag after the North refused to accept the South's proposal that the summit should be held in Seoul. The two Koreas held summit-talks in 2000 and 2007 and agreed on a series of reconciliation efforts and economic projects.

The new developments come as tensions have been mounting between the two Koreas over Pyongyang's nuclear and missile development plans.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak earlier said that he was willing to meet DPRK's top leader Kim Jong-II any time, promising a "transparent" process while pushing for an inter-Korean summit.