The mutual mistrust between the two governments has deepened in recent years, as North Korea conducted nuclear tests and provoked South Korea militarily; the South then pulled back from its “sunshine policy” of working to engage the North. Consecutive conservative governments in Seoul complained that years of ample aid and investment had not persuaded Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear arms program.

“The collapse of the government talks shows how rigid the South and North Korean authorities have become,” said Cheong Seong-chang, an analyst at the Sejong Institute in South Korea.

The government of President Park Geun-hye of South Korea has repeatedly vowed to break the “vicious cycle” of the North’s provocations — in which it has been rewarded with gestures of appeasement, including aid, by its adversaries. Such a firm stance has proved popular in South Korea, with Ms. Park’s approach being cited as one of her biggest strengths in public surveys. But critics this week expressed fear that by allowing the talks to collapse over what they view as a point of pride, Ms. Park was wasting an opportunity to ease tensions.

“If the South Korean government is really willing to resolve the standing issues with North Korea through dialogue, it could have shown some flexibility,” Mr. Cheong said.

The North proposed the talks shortly after its benefactors in China prodded its leader, Kim Jong-un, to take steps to diminish tensions on the peninsula. The North has also been suffering economically under intensified sanctions leveled because of its nuclear program, and its leaders might have hoped that re-engagement with the South would lead to renewed investment.

The Koreas were to discuss reversing the recent suspension of their joint operation of an industrial complex, and revising other economic and humanitarian projects that faltered a few years ago amid tensions over North Korean nuclear tests, international sanctions and threats of war.

The industrial park at Kaesong, a North Korean border town, was shuttered in April when North Korea pulled out all of its 53,000 workers and accused the United States and South Korea of raising military tensions. The factory park had been the last and best-known symbol of inter-Korean rapprochement efforts from 1998 to 2008.

Representatives of the two countries met on the border on Sunday to sort out the details of this week’s talks, but they left the dispute over the chief delegates unresolved.