SEOUL, South Korea — North and South Korea on Wednesday started their highest-level government dialogue since the North’s nuclear test last year prompted fears of armed conflict on the divided Korean Peninsula.

The meeting at the truce village of Panmunjom on the border between the two Koreas was first suggested by the North, which has recently called repeatedly for better ties. The United States, whose secretary of state, John Kerry, travels to Seoul on Thursday, remains deeply skeptical, as does Seoul, about the motives of the North Korean government.

American and South Korean officials have accused North Korea of using a charm offensive to draw its adversaries into dialogue and win concessions while distracting attention from its ever-expanding nuclear and long-range missile programs.

Still, the meeting at Panmunjom gives senior South Korean officials a rare opportunity to gauge whether the North’s policies are shifting under its new leader, Kim Jong-un. Relations between the two countries reached a low point in 2010 when a South Korean Navy patrol ship sank, killing 46 sailors, in an explosion that the South blamed on a North Korean torpedo attack.