SEOUL: Pyongyang and Seoul have been secretly trying to set up a summit by mid-year, news reports said yesterday, but Seoul insisted that Pyongyang would not be offered any payment as an enticement.

The Republic of Korea's (ROK) President Lee Myung-bak has said he wants a firm commitment from Pyongyang to rejoin six-party disarmament talks and scrap its nuclear arms program before agreeing to what would be only the third summit between the states still technically at war.

A senior US State Department official arrived in Seoul yesterday for discussions aimed at prodding the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) back to nuclear talks after the mercurial state last week raised tensions by firing artillery toward a sea border with the ROK.