Senior government officials have denied a media report that the two Koreas held secret talks in the North Korean border city of Gaeseong in mid-August.

The Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun said Sunday that high-ranking South Korean officials and the vice chairman of the North's powerful National Defense Commission Jang Sung-taek attended the meeting.

A source at the South Korean presidential office denied the report, saying Asahi is in no position to know Seoul's affairs.

A Unification Ministry official in Seoul also dismissed the report as groundless.