The Unification Ministry denied reports that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il had proposed summit talks with U.S. President George W. Bush on normalizing bilateral ties.

Japan's Nihon Keizai Shimbun on Monday cited a U.S. government source as saying that South Korea's unification minister had delivered to Washington the summit proposal made by Kim to the Seoul official in June.

The ministry on Monday flatly rejected the report as untrue.