SEOUL: North Korea rejected offers of talks from the South during a rare exchange between the two rivals鈥� foreign ministers, Seoul鈥檚 Yonhap news agency reported Monday after the UN imposed a new round of sanctions on nuclear-armed Pyongyang.
News of the brief encounter on the sidelines of a regional forum in Manila came as the South鈥檚 President Moon Jae-In urged a 鈥減eaceful resolution鈥� to the tensions in a telephone conversation with his US counterpart Donald Trump.
Even a conventional conflict on the peninsula could could cost a million dead or wounded within months, estimates say.
Moon told Trump the South 鈥渃annot let another war to break out鈥� on the peninsula after the 1950-53 Korean War that sealed the division of two Koreas, the presidential Blue House said in a statement.
The South鈥檚 Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-Wha shook hands with her Northern counterpart Ri Yong-Ho ahead of an ASEAN Regional Forum dinner on Sunday, Yonhap said.
Kang urged Ri to accept Seoul鈥檚 offers of military talks to lower tensions on the divided peninsula, and for discussions on a new round of reunions for divided families.
But Ri retorted: 鈥淕iven the current situation in which the South collaborates with the US to heap pressure on the North, such proposals lacked sincerity,鈥� the unnamed official was quoted as saying.
Kang reiterated again 鈥渢he South鈥檚 sincerity鈥� and repeated a call for Pyongyang to come forward for talks, the official said.
It was the first time cabinet-level officials from the two Koreas had met since Moon 鈥� who urges engagement with the North as well as sanctions to bring it to the negotiating table 鈥� took power in May.
The encounter came a day after the UN Security Council passed sweeping sanctions on the North over its first successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which sparked global alarm.
The growing threat from the nuclear-armed North dominated the annual forum, which came days after the North鈥檚 second ICBM test.

The missile launches have added to tensions on the peninsula with the US leaving open the possibility of military action against Kim Jong-Un鈥檚 regime.
White House National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster vowed to 鈥減rovide all options鈥� on the country in a recent interview with CNN.
But Moon, in a phone conversation with Trump on Monday, urged calm and 鈥減eaceful and diplomatic resolution.鈥�
The two allies are due later this month to start an annual joint military drill hated by Pyongyang, which habitually slams it as a rehearsal for invasion.
The White House said the two leaders 鈥渁ffirmed that North Korea poses a grave and growing direct threat to the United States, South Korea, and Japan, as well as to most countries around the world.鈥�
They welcomed the sweeping new sanctions passed by the UN Security Council in a 15-0 vote on Saturday in a bid to step up pressure on Pyongyang over its weapons programs.
The measures ban a wide range of fisheries and mineral exports from the impoverished state in a move aimed at slashing Pyongyang鈥檚 foreign revenue by a third.
Trump hailed the vote, thanking Russia and China for backing a measure that either could have halted with their UN veto.
鈥淛ust completed call with President Moon of South Korea. Very happy and impressed with 15-0 United Nations vote on North Korea sanctions,鈥� Trump tweeted.
Pyongyang has not officially responded to the latest UN sanctions.