The leader of North Korea's delegation to the first official talks between Pyongyang and Seoul for more than two years hoped for "precious" results from the discussions, he said as the meeting began Tuesday.

"Let's present the people with a precious new year's gift," Ri Son-Gwon told South Korean unification minister Cho Myoung-Gyon in Panmunjom, the truce village in the Demilitarised Zone that divides the peninsula.