South Korea says its planned talks with North Korea have been scrapped a day before they were supposed to begin because of a stalemate over who will lead each delegation.

A spokesman for Seoul's Unification Ministry told reporters Tuesday that North Korea said it wasn't sending its officials because of the disagreement. South Korea had wanted each country's top official for inter-Korean affairs to meet. Pyongyang wouldn't commit to that.

The two-day meeting had been set to start Wednesday in Seoul. It would have been the Koreas' first high-level meeting in six years and had briefly raised hopes of an improvement in ties. Recent relations have been marked with war threats.

The rivals were to discuss restarting two high-profile economic projects that were started during a past era of rapprochement.