Leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong-il held a rare meeting with a senior South Korean official on Friday in the DPRK capital of Pyongyang, the Yonhap news agency reported.

South Korean officials in Pyongyang confirmed that Kim and South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young had an unscheduled luncheon meeting but did not provide further details about the meeting, the news agency said.

Also invited to the luncheon were several former South Korean officials whom the DPRK leader had met, including Lim Dong-won and Park Jae-kyu who served as unification ministers under the government of former President Kim Dae-jung, the report said.

The meeting, the first of its kind in more than three years, was arranged a few hours before Chung and his 40-member South Korean government delegation was to return home after attending the fifth anniversary celebrations in Pyongyang of the historic June 15, 2000 inter-Korean summit.

Chung has been the second South Korean senior official to meet Kim Jong-il since the 2000 summit of the leaders of the DPRK and South Korea. In April 2002, Kim met with a South Korean special envoy.

Source: Xinhua