HIGH-level officials from North and South Korea have started to prepare for an April summit between their leaders.

The talks at a border village earlier today came amid a global diplomatic push to resolve the stand-off over the North’s nuclear programme.

Officials planned to use the talks at the northern side of Panmunjom to determine the date and agenda of the meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

The results of the closed-door talks were not immediately clear.

Seoul’s unification minister Cho Myoung-gyon, one of the three South Korean participants, told reporters that setting up discussions between the leaders on ways to rid the North of its nuclear weapons would be a critical point. He added that there could be several such preparatory meetings.

The North’s three delegates were led by Ri Son Gwon, chairman of a state agency that deals with inter-Korean affairs. The South’s delegation arrived in Panmunjom after their vehicles crossed the heavily guarded border near the southern city of Paju.

Greeting the South Korean officials at the North Korea-controlled Tongilgak building, Ri said that the past 80 days have been filled with “unprecedented historic events” between the rivals.

He was referring to the Koreas resuming dialogue before the Winter Olympics in the South and the agreement on the summit and expressed hopes for an outcome that would meet the “hope and desire of the nation”.

Cho, in response, said officials in the preparatory talks should do their best to set up a successful summit as the “current situation was created by decisions from the highest leaders of the North and South”.

The talks follow a surprise meeting this week between Kim and Chinese president Xi Jinping, which appeared to be aimed at improving both countries’ positions ahead of Kim’s planned meetings with Moon and US president Donald Trump.

In setting up separate talks with Beijing, Seoul, Washington, and potentially with Moscow and Tokyo, North Korea may be moving to disrupt any united front among its negotiating counterparts.

By reintroducing China, which is the North’s only major ally, as a major player, North Korea also gains leverage against South Korea and the United States, analysts say.

In his talks with Xi, Kim may have discussed economic co-operation with China or requested a softening of enforcement of sanctions over the North’s nukes and missiles.

North Korea also wants Beijing to resist tougher sanctions if the talks with Washington and Seoul fall apart and the North starts testing missiles again.

South Korea’s presidential office said Chinese state councillor Yang Jiechi arrived in Seoul today for a two-day trip to brief Moon and other officials on the results of the talks between Kim and Xi.

Moon’s spokesman, Kim Eui-kyeom, in a statement said Seoul welcomes the meeting between Kim and Trump and that it was an encouraging sign that the North Korean leader expressed firm willingness for dialogue with South Korea and the US during his visit to Beijing.

North Korea has yet to officially confirm its interest in a summit between Kim and Trump.

In its coverage of the Kim-Xi meeting, the North’s state media did not carry Kim’s reported comments on opening dialogue with the US that were carried in Chinese state media.

The leaders of the two Koreas have held talks only twice since the 1950-53 Korean War, in 2000 and 2007, under previous liberal governments in Seoul.