North Korea has rejected a proposal by South Korea for inter-Korean talks, which was made to coincide with a rare visit to the North by the widow of former President Kim Dae-jung, a government source said Monday.
  

South Korea attempted to send a letter to North Korea proposing dialogue on Wednesday, the same day Lee Hee-ho embarked on her four-day trip to North Korea, according to the source.
  

The South did not ask the 93-year-old to deliver a message to the North on the behalf of the Seoul government, stressing that her trip was made in her private capacity.
  

"The government tried to send a letter to North Korea to propose inter-Korean talks, but the North refused to receive it," the source said.
  

Lee returned home Saturday, after failing to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who had invited her to his country.
  

Experts said the absence of a meeting points to the long-frayed inter-Korean relations and doubts about North Korea's resolve to improve Seoul-Pyongyang ties.
  

People hope the trip will ease tensions on the peninsula, sparked by the North's nuclear and missile tests, as Lee is a symbolic figure for inter-Korean reconciliation due to her late husband's accomplishments.
  

The former president, who died in 2009, was the architect of the "sunshine" policy that actively pushed for cross-border exchanges and reconciliation. He held the first inter-Korean summit with then North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in 2000. (Yonhap)