South Korean media and lawmakers say senior military officials from North and South Korea held a secret meeting Wednesday to discuss recent cross-border gunfire.
The meeting, reported by Yonhap news agency and opposition politician Park Jie-won, occurred at the Panmunjom truce village located along the countries' tense de facto border.
The two sides were said to have discussed an incident last Friday in which the two Koreas exchanged small arms fire after Pyongyang fired at a balloon from the South carrying anti-North propaganda.
That followed an incident last week in which North and South Korean naval patrol boats traded warning shots along their disputed Yellow Sea border. There were no casualties or damage reported in either incident.
The clashes threaten to unravel high-level talks agreed to earlier this month after North Korea unexpectedly sent a senior delegation to the South.