At the meeting, RoK Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung asked the DPRK to implement a February 13 pledge made with the US and four other countries to take initial steps to disarm.

The talks, the highest-level regular contact between the two Koreas, are the first in seven months. They came after the DPRK agreed in Beijing last month that it will shut down its main nuclear reactor within 60 days in exchange for aid. Earlier, the DPRK proposed that the two countries resume economic cooperation talks in March.

Meanwhile, the countries involved in the nuclear talks – two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the US - have begun preparations to implement the disarmament pact.

US Statement Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in Washington that US and the DPRK officials will meet in New York on March 5-6 to discuss normalizing relations, one of the steps to be taken under the nuclear deal.

Also on March 1, the US State Department's diplomat, John Negroponte, arrived in Japan for a tour expected to focus on the DPRK nuclear issue that will also take him to RoK and China.

RoK Foreign Minister Song Min-soon also left for Washington the same day for talks with his counterpart, Condoleezza Rice, on the DPRK. He also will travel to Moscow.

CNN