South Korea has pressed North Korea to return to multilateral talks on Pyongyang's nuclear plans.
However, there is no sign the North would drop its resistance to discussions on the crisis.
South Korea's top delegate to the bilateral talks - the first in 10 months - promised yesterday that Seoul would offer a new and serious proposal if Pyongyang returned to six-country talks on dismantling its nuclear programmes.
Reports from the northern city of Kaesong, where the talks were being held, did not say whether there had been any progress nor whether the North had responded to the idea.
There is added urgency to efforts to restart stalled six-party talks because some US officials said they were concerned Pyongyang might be planning a nuclear test.
South Korea has said bilateral exchanges offer a chance to improve the prospects for the multilateral talks - also involving the United States, China, Japan and Russia - after nearly a year of deadlock.