SEOUL - North Korean leader Kim Jong-il will hold a rare meeting with a top South Korean official on Friday amid growing regional concern about whether Pyongyang intends to return to talks on its nuclear weapons programs.

Kim, a reclusive figure seldom seen in public, rarely meets officials from other countries.

His expected talks with Unification Minister Chung Dong-young- announced by a ministry spokesman in Seoul- come as delegates from South Korea are in Pyongyang to mark the fifth anniversary of a landmark summit between Kim and then South Korean President Kim Dae-jung.

"The minister plans to meet Chairman Kim Jong-il today. But we can't give you details about the place or time," the spokesman said by telephone in Seoul. Kim's main official title among many is chairman of the National Defense Commission.

The timing of the meeting is significant, although it was too early to say whether Kim would use the encounter to make a breakthrough announcement or pass a message to Washington.

There is growing concern over whether North Korea will return to stalled six-party talks on ending its nuclear weapons programs. The last round of talks was in June last year.

Washington has said the North has told U.S. officials Pyongyang will return, but the communist state did not set a date. The talks bring together the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.

One analyst said Kim may use the meeting to deliver a message to South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun.

"The North may say that they appreciate Roh's efforts for the six-party talks. And there is a possibility that Kim will say he is considering a summit meeting with Roh," said Paik Hak-soon of South Korea's Sejong Institute.

Kim promised at the summit in June 15, 2000, to visit the South but has yet to do so.

Roh met U.S. President George W. Bush last Friday in Washington and the two leaders agreed the North should return quickly to the talks.

Roh said on his return to Seoul the North could expect flexibility in the six-party process and added the South would give details of an incentive package to the North once Pyongyang returned to the talks.

On Thursday, Chung briefed the North's number-two leader on the renewed commitment by the United States and South Korea to resolve the nuclear crisis diplomatically, a ministry spokesman was quoted as saying in a pool report from Pyongyang.

Chung would be only the second South Korean senior official to meet Kim since the 2000 summit of the leaders of the North and South, the ministry said. In April 2002, Kim met a South Korean special envoy.

Additional reporting by Yoo Choonsik and Kim Yoo-chul