"Culture and Tourism Minister Kim Han-gil embarked on a four-day trip to Pyongyang on Saturday to discuss sports exchanges and inter-Korean tourism projects," a ministry official said.
The North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported late on Saturday that Kim and his party had arrived in Pyongyang via China and were greeted by sports officials.
Kim has said he would mainly discuss sending a single Korean team to a world table tennis competition in Japan in April.
But Seoul officials said he would also discuss a possible sharing of World Cup matches in the isolated state.
"We still support the idea of hosting one to two World Cup games in North Korea," Song Jin-ho, an official at the Sports Exchange division of the culture ministry, said on Friday.
South Korea and Japan are co-hosts of the 2002 World Cup.
A South Korean soccer team composed of union members traveled to the North in 1999 to stage a friendly match with North Korean labourers.
Local media said Kim might also discuss sharing some of the 2002 Asian Games to be held in Pusan, a port city on South Korea's southeast coast in September.
The divided Korean peninsula has been the scene of an unprecedented thaw in relations since an historic summit between South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il last summer.
While the two Koreas are still divided by a heavily armed border that has blocked most civilian contact, the rapprochement process has paved the way for a wide range of sport and cultural exchanges since last year.
The two Koreas remain technically at war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armed truce rather than a peace accord.
Reuters
South Korea plans this week to discuss cultural and sports exchanges with North Korea - including sharing of some 2002 World Cup soccer matches.
