Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok visited the Gaesong Industrial Complex in North Korea on Friday and met a senior North Korean economic official there.

The last time Lee visited the site was in May, which makes their meeting Friday the first high level inter-Korean contact since the North's nuclear test, aside from meetings between delegates to the six-way talks.

A ministry official said the North Korean official, Ju Tong-chan, who heads the North's agency for special economic zones, came to Gaesong from Pyongyang to greet him. Ju has also headed the North Korean delegation to a series of inter-Korean economic talks in
his capacity as vice chairman of the North's Committee for National Economic Cooperation.

Their meeting had no particular agenda but was to confirm commitment of the two Koreas to success of the complex.

Meanwhile, South Korean reporters who were to accompany Minister Lee to Gaesong refused to go after Pyongyang declined an invitation to one reporter from the Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC).

During cross-border family reunions in March, North Korea clashed with an MBC reporter who said that South Korean abductees were "seized" by the North.