In the wake of collapsed efforts to hold inter-Korean governmental talks, Seoul no longer appears to be pursuing a compromise with the North to revive the prospect of holding the inter-Korean dialogue.

An official at the Unification Ministry told reporters Wednesday that the South will stick to its original list of delegates to the government-level talks, which the North raised issue with before canceling the scheduled meeting.

The ministry official said that the government is neither considering having an additional working-level contact with the North.

The official explained that Seoul never explicitly demanded North Korea to list Director of the United Front Department of the ruling Workers' Party Kim Yang-gon as its head delegate. The official added that the South, however, viewed it would have been desirable for the North to send a chief delegate among its alternate members of the Political Bureau of the North’s Korean Workers’ Party, which Kim is one of.

The ministry official explained that the South had listed a deputy-ministerial official as its delegation chief only because the North was expected to designate someone at the level of the director of the secretariat of the Committee for Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland as its chief delegate.

The planned South-North Korean governmental talks were canceled Tuesday night after Pyongyang unilaterally notified Seoul of its decision to call off the meeting, raising an issue with the level of Seoul’s chief delegate to the talks.