North Korea and South Korea hold 1st official talks on Sunday June 9,2013

North Korean chief delegate Kim Song-Hye shakes hands with her South Korean counterpart Chun Hae-Sung before the inter-Korean working-level talks at Panmunjom.

The meeting in Pammunjon, where the armistice was signed in the 1950-53 Korean War, was taking place hours after U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese leader Xi Jinping agreed at a summit that the North had to abandon its nuclear programme.

The hour-long morning session appeared to pave the way for ministerial-level discussions next Wednesday.

Such a meeting would be the first such encounter in more than six years