North Korea has rejected Seoul's offer of emergency aid via a cross-border overland route to help victims of last week's explosion at a train station in Ryongchon.
Pyongyang, instead, proposed through a liaison officer at the border truce village of Panmunjom, to hold inter-Korean talks on the matter at the North's border city of Gaesong.
A South Korean official said Monday the North had sent a request for aid, but avoided discussing a specific transportation route. He said the North proposed that the meeting be held on Tuesday.
If the North opposed to overland transportation of relief materials, South Korean aid appears likely to be shipped this week to the disaster-stricken area via the South's northwestern port city of Incheon.