North Korean leader Kim Jong-il will hold a rare meeting with a senior South Korean official today.
The famously reclusive Kim rarely meets officials from other countries. The man he will meet, Unification Minister Chung Dong-young, received the invitation while he was out on a morning jog during a visit to Pyongyang, North Korea's capital.
The expected talks - announced by a ministry spokesman in Seoul - came as delegates from South Korea were in Pyongyang to mark the fifth anniversary of a landmark summit between Kim and then South Korean President Kim Dae-jung.
There is uncertainty over whether Kim would use the encounter to make a breakthrough announcement or pass a message.
There is growing concern over whether North Korea will return to stalled six-party talks on ending its nuclear weapons programmes. The last round of talks was in June last year.
Washington has said the North has told US officials Pyongyang will return, but the communist state did not set a date. The talks bring together the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.