SEOUL, Aug. 2 Kyodo -- A South Korean delegation left an eastern port for North Korea on Friday for working-level talks to lay the ground for a proposed seventh ministerial meeting between the two Koreas.

In the working talks, Rhee Bong Jo, the Unification Ministry's assistant minister for unification policy, and Suh Young Kyo, a director of the ministry, will represent South Korea.

Choi Sung Il and Kim Man Kil from North Korea's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland will represent the North.

Twelve attendants and six journalists are accompanying the South Korean delegation.

In the meeting to be held at a hotel at Mt. Kumgang on the North's eastern coast, the two sides are expected to discuss details related to resuming the seventh inter-Korean ministerial talks including the timing and agenda for those discussions.

The ministerial talks have been in suspension since late last year.

Agenda items likely to be taken up in the three-day working meeting through Sunday include measures to revive the stalled inter-Korean reconciliation process, such as the connection of across-border railways and additional reunions of separated families.

The inter-Korean working session is the first governmental contact since a South Korean presidential envoy visited Pyongyang in April for talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

North and South Korea held six rounds of ministerial talks to discuss the implementation of agreements reached between their top leaders at the historic inter-Korean summit in June 2000 in Pyongyang.

The two Koreas clashed a deadly naval battle on the disputed western maritime border June 29, but in a major turnaround since, North Korea expressed regret over the battle last week and also proposed the two Koreas hold a working meeting to discuss the resumption of the suspended ministerial talks in Seoul.

In the naval skirmish, four South Korean soldiers died, one is listed as missing and 19 others were wounded. One South Korean boat sank.

South Korea estimates 13 North Koreans were killed in the battle and about 17 wounded. North Korea said it suffered casualties, but did not give an exact number.

In the working talks, the South Korean delegates are expected to demand North Korea punish those found responsible for the naval clash, the most serious confront since a similar incident in June 1999 and also take measures to prevent a recurrence of similar incidents.

The South Korean government has come under some criticism for agreeing to talks with the North following the North's expression of regret over the gunbattle. Some South Korean critics say the ''regret'' was ''short'' of an apology.