The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Monday proposed holding working-level Red Cross talks with South Korea later this week over repatriation of a group of DPRK people, the unification ministry here said.

The unification ministry said the DPRK Red Cross officials, via a message delivered to South Korean counterparts earlier in the day, suggested a meeting be held in the truce village of Panmunjom on Wednesday to "promptly resolve" the issue of repatriation of 31 DPRK people, whose fishing boat crossed the tense western sea border early last month.

The ministry, which oversees inter-Korean matters, has said it will send back 27 of them but not four who expressed their wish to defect, citing "humanitarian" reasons. Seoul's attempt last Friday to return only 27 of the 31 DPRK people failed as the miffed DPRK authorities demanded repatriation of all its nationals.

The DPRK demanded in Monday's message that the four people be present at the proposed working-level meeting to meet their families, while South Korea said it is willing to discuss " confirming the free will" of the four people in question and suggested the issue be discussed at the meeting on Wednesday, according to the unification ministry.

Amid growing conflict, South Korean Red Cross officials have notified their counterparts of their plan to repatriate the 27 DPRK later in the day, but the DPRK has yet to respond to Seoul's second attempt.