South Korea's unification minister Hyun In-taek met with his counterpart from Pyongyang on Saturday in the first high-level cross-border contact in nearly two years.

South Korea's unification minister Hyun In-taek (R) met with Kim Yang-gon, head of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s Workers' Party unification front department, from Pyongyang on Saturday in the first high-level cross-border contact in nearly two years.[Xinhua/Reuters Photo]

Hyun held talks with Kim Yang-gon, head of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s Workers' Party unification front department and a key figure in inter-Korean relations.

Kim and his five other DPRK officials were in Seoul for paying respects to late former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung on Friday.

"Now that we meet here, I'm going to raise inter-Korean issues," Hyun said while he arrived at a hotel where the DPRK team is staying.

Asked by a reporter what message he would send in the closed-door meeting, Hyun said, "I'm the minister in charge of inter-Korean relations, and I think this meeting itself is a message."

The meeting was the first high-level inter-Korean dialogue since the inauguration of South Korea's Lee Myung-bak administration in February last year.

(Xinhua News Agency August 22, 2009)