The remarks came one day after a group of some 40 nonprofit, nongovernmental organizations, including Human Rights Watch, sent a letter to the South Korean president asking him to press human rights issues when he sits down with the reclusive North Korean leader on April 27 for an inter-Korean summit.

"It does not mean human rights issues are not important but that the objective of the upcoming summit is addressing the most urgent issue of denuclearization," the Cheong Wa Dae official said.

Seoul has supported North Korea human rights resolutions adopted each year since 2003 by the UN Human Rights Council. It again offered its support for the latest resolution adopted last month, which prompted strong objections from Pyongyang.

The Cheong Wa Dae official's remarks came hours after the US State Department hinted at US President Donald Trump bringing up human rights issues in his separate bilateral talks with Kim, which are expected to be held late May or early June.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert agreed that the top agenda item for the upcoming dialogue with the North Korean leader will be the denuclearization of North Korea but said human rights issues may still come up.

"I imagine that (human rights issues) would come up as well.

However, denuclearization of the Korean peninsula -- which is something that Kim Jong-un said that he is willing to abide by and willing to work toward -- I think that is obviously the top conversation, and other things may come up as well," she said.

Seoul has often pointed out the importance of the upcoming summits with North Korea, noting that they may be the "only and last chance" to rid the North of its nuclear weapons.

It has also ruled out the possibility of discussing economic cooperation at the April 27 South-North summit, saying the issue, despite affecting hundreds of South Korean companies kicked out of a joint industrial complex in North Korea's Kaesong, can wait until later talks.

The upcoming inter-Korean summit, if held, will be the first of its kind since 2007 and only the third in history.

The US-North Korea summit will be the first of its kind. (Yonhap)