North Korean leader Kim Jong-un guides a target-striking contest of the special operation forces of the Korean People's Army to occupy islands in Pyongyang on Aug. 25, 2017.

Although the expected meeting of leaders of North and South Korea next week has sparked reports that Kim Jong Un may agree to officially end the Korean War, Pyongyang does not view Seoul as an authorized participant in peace talks, a former CIA official told CNBC.

After nearly seven decades, the Korean War, which began on June 25, 1950, and lasted for three years, remains officially unresolved. When the war ended, the North agreed to a truce but not a peace treaty. As a result, the North and South have technically remained at war for the last 68 years.

"When I met with North Korean officials last year, they said that South Korea is not 'qualified' to participate in peace treaty negotiations because it didn't sign the armistice and didn't have wartime operational control of its forces," Bruce Klingner, senior research fellow of Northeast Asia at the Heritage Foundation, told CNBC.

"Technically, South Korea is not a signatory to the armistice and a peace treaty would require UN action," Klingner added. "The previous North Korean position has been for three parties – North Korea, China, and the U.S. – to sign a final peace treaty."

The potential April 27 summit between the two Koreas will be their first face-to-face meeting since 2007. Notably, the two are set to meet in the South Korean village of Panmunjom, which would make Kim the first North Korean leader to cross the 38th parallel since the Korean War.

A possible meeting between Kim and President Donald Trump — which would be the first between two sitting leaders of North Korea and the United States — is also reportedly in the works. However, details of the arrangement are slim.

Trump said Tuesday that the Koreas have his "blessing" to try ending their war.