South and North Korea will be able to hold another round of high-level talks as scheduled, a senior presidential aide said Sunday, amid growing worries the recent exchange of fire across the tense border could scupper the meeting.

In early October, a high-powered North Korea delegation made a surprise visit to South Korea to attend the closing ceremony of the 2014 Incheon Asian Games, agreeing with South Korea's top security officials to hold another round of high-level talks in late October or early November. 

Earlier this week, Seoul proposed to hold the meeting on Oct. 30. The North has kept silent on the offer. The two sides had the first senior-level talks in February since the launch of their current leadership. 

But the recent exchange of fire between the two sides across the tense border over Seoul activists' scattering of anti-Pyongyang leaflets has raised concern over whether the second-round meeting could be held as agreed.

"I hope the second high-level contact between the two Koreas will go off without a hitch and we are making preparations for it," Ju Chul-ki, senior presidential secretary for foreign affairs, told reporters without elaborating.

He also said President Park Geun-hye had broached the issue of North Korea's nuclear weapons program and its human rights record at last week's biennial summit of the Asia-Europe Meeting because they are not only inter-Korean matters but also international concerns.

"The international community should know about the issues and work together to resolve them," he said. "The president's remarks should be construed as making a good recommendation (to the North)."

Speaking at the meeting on Thursday, President Park pressed North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program and show sincerity in addressing its abysmal human rights record.

North Korea slammed President Park for her remarks on Saturday, calling them an "unpardonable politically motivated provocation." 

The six-party talks on denuclearizing North Korea have been dormant since late 2008 when Pyongyang walked away from the negotiating table. The forum involves the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia. Since its third nuclear test last year, North Korea has repeatedly expressed its willingness to return to the six-party forum "without preconditions."

The European Union and Japan have written a draft resolution that calls for the U.N. Security Council to refer Pyongyang's human rights situation to an international criminal justice mechanism.

In response, the North is drafting a resolution to counter the EU-led move, demanding that the U.N. debate on human rights should be conducted on the principle of guaranteeing sovereignty and mutual respect. The North is seeking to drum up support from a group of non-aligned countries for its proposed draft resolution. (Yonhap)