SEOUL, June 10 (Yonhap) -- North Korea should send a high-enough-level official for this week's inter-Korean talks with South Korea, a senior presidential official said Monday, stressing that matching the grades of chief delegates is the starting point for building trust.

The two Koreas agreed in marathon talks that extended into early Monday to hold high-level government-to-government talks in Seoul on Wednesday and Thursday, the first of their kind in six years. The topics will include the possible resumption of a joint industrial complex and other suspended economic projects as well as humanitarian issues.

One of the sticking points in the working-level meeting was the level of officials to represent each side, with the South insisting that it will send a Cabinet minister to the talks and demanding the North send a correspondingly high-level official.

Specifically, the South asked the North send Kim Yang-gon, a top official in charge of inter-Korean relations, but Pyongyang balked at the idea for reasons yet unknown. The disagreement led the two sides to name the upcoming talks as simply "government-to-government" talks, rather than cabinet level. 

"What is important in government-level talks is the ranking" of the delegations, a senior presidential official said on the condition of anonymity citing the sensitivity of the issue. "If such levels do not match, wouldn't there be issues of trust from the beginning?"

Earlier in the day, South Korean President Park Geun-hye expressed hope for progress in the upcoming talks.

"North Korea last week accepted our proposal for government-level talks. I hope the talks between the South and North Korea will proceed in a forward-moving manner," Park said during a cabinet meeting.

Park presided over a meeting of foreign affairs and security ministers later that day to discuss strategies for this week's meeting and other developments on the Korean Peninsula, including the result of a recent summit between U.S. President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

Park ordered officials to make thorough preparations for the upcoming talks keeping in mind the government's "principles" and the "people's wish," according to senior presidential press secretary Lee Jung-hyun.

The breakthrough deal on this week's meeting grew out of North Korea's surprise offer on Thursday to hold government-level talks with the South, an abrupt backdown by the regime that had made near-daily war threats while refusing Seoul's offer for talks. The two sides have since worked out details in working-level talks on Sunday and Monday.

Analysts said the North's about-face could have been an attempt by Pyongyang to project a softer image ahead of a high-stakes summit between Obama and Xi. The leaders of the two superpowers agreed at the informal two-day meeting in California over the past weekend that the North should abandon its nuclear ambitions.

The North's dialogue offer was seen as a victory for Park's "Korean Peninsula trust process." Under the policy, she has pledged to stick to the principle of dealing sternly with North Korean threats and provocations while at the same time leaving the door open for dialogue.