By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
President Lee Myung-bak encountered Friday North Korea's No. 2 leader Kim Yong-nam at a welcoming lunch hosted by Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing, a Cheong Wa Dae official said.
Whether President Lee spoke to Kim, who is chairman of the North Korean parliament and his country's titular head of state, remains unclear
An aide to President Lee told reporters that the two sat diagonally across from each other at the lunch.
Several heads of state sat with the two Korean leaders, he added.
Lee also encountered U.S. President George W. Bush, while waiting to enter the venue of the welcoming luncheon, the official said.
Speculation had grown that the Lee-Kim meeting might not take place because Kim was reportedly reluctant to sit at the same table with the conservative President Lee.
Inter-Korean relations have turned sour since Lee was inaugurated in February, due to his tougher stance on the Stalinist state.
In retaliation, the North kicked South Korean officials out of its territory in March and cut all communication channels.
The situation grew worse after a South Korean tourist was shot dead by a North Korean solider July 11 at the Mount Geumgang resort.
The national teams of the two Koreas also marched separately in the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, instead of together as initially agreed.
International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge called the failure a ``setback for peace" and reunification efforts on the Korean Peninsula.
In the 2000 and 2004 Olympics, athletes from the two Koreas marched together wearing the same uniform under the blue and white ``unification flag."