The last time officials responsible for inter-Korean affairs met was for several days from late November to early December of 2007 during the administration of South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun.
"I would like to talk inter-Korean" issues, Hyun told reporters before he entered a hotel conference room for discussions with his North Korean counterpart, Yonhap news agency reported. But he sounded cautious about whether the North Korean delegation would make a courtesy call to President Lee Myung-bak, whose hard-line policy toward the communist regime soured bilateral relations.
The talks came a day after Kim and five other senior North Koreans flew to Seoul to pay their respects to the late Kim Dae-jung, a former South Korean president beloved on both sides of the border for his pursuit of closer ties between the divided states.
The North Koreans were scheduled to return home later Saturday. The meeting also marked the first high-level talks between the two Koreas since Lee, a pro-U.S. conservative leader, took office in February last year.
On Friday, the black-clad North Koreans lit incense, bowed their heads and laid a floral wreath before a large portrait of the late Kim at a memorial site on the grounds of the National Assembly, where the funeral will be held. The delegation was the first Pyongyang ever sent to mourn a South Korean leader.
Kim, who died Tuesday at age 85, was respected on both sides of the border for his efforts to forge detente with the North. He reached out to South Korea's impoverished neighbor with aid - the main thrust of his "Sunshine Policy" that earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 - and held a landmark summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in 2000.
The visit is the latest indication that North Korea wants to improve relations on the peninsula after months of tensions. The communist nation recently pulled out of nuclear negotiations, conducted an atomic test and test-fired a barrage of missiles, earning international condemnation and U.N. sanctions.
