SEOUL (Reuters) – North and South Korea have been secretly trying to set up a summit by mid-year, news reports said on Tuesday, but the South insisted the destitute North would not be offered any payment as an enticement.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak has said he wants a firm commitment from Pyongyang to rejoin six-party disarmament talks and scrap its nuclear arms programmed before agreeing to what would be only the third summit between the states still technically at war.
A senior U.S. State Department official arrives in Seoul on Tuesday for discussions aimed at prodding the North back to nuclear talks after the mercurial state last week raised tensions by firing artillery toward a disputed sea border with the South.
“The leaders of the South and North must meet only on the premise that there won't be any payoff for agreeing to hold the summit,” Lee's spokesman quoted him as saying at a cabinet meeting. “We'll never back down from this principle.”
Analysts say pressure is mounting on the North to end its year-long boycott of the six-way nuclear talks, where it can win aid to prop up its broken economy by reducing the threat it poses to North Asia, which makes up one-sixth of the global economy.
Lee has been critical of the two previous summits where the North won pledges for billions of dollars of aid from the South, while Seoul received little in return as the North built up its conventional military forces, missile arsenal and nuclear plans.