North Korea had proposed the studies, surveys and academic fora about Mount Paektu last week; South Korea proposed the talks should be held on 29 March.
Mount Paektu last erupted in 1903 but is believed to retain an active core.
Separately, international diplomacy aimed at restarting nuclear disarmament talks with the North is continuing.
A senior North Korean diplomat is reported by the South Korean Yonhap news agency to have accepted an American invitation to a seminar in Germany at the weekend.
South Korea's Foreign Minister Kim Sung-Hwan is to visit China next week for talks about North Korea's nuclear enrichment programme.
South Korea and the United States have called on China to support a United Nations condemnation of the programme.
However, South Korea has also reiterated its call for North Korea to offer a "heartfelt apology" for what Seoul calls two acts of aggression by the North against the South.
'Smart aid' These are the sinking of a warship, the Cheonan, on 26 March last year with the loss of 46 South Korean sailors' lives, and the shelling by North Korea of Yeonpyeong Island last November which killed four people.
North Korea denies involvement in the first incident and says it was provoked by South Korean military exercises into the second.
China's veto at the United Nations security council prevented direct sanction of North Korea for these alleged "provocations".
China and North Korea have expressed readiness to restart the six-party talks on ending North Korea's nuclear programmes "without preconditions".
Recent cross-border efforts have stuttered - defence talks broke up last month.
However, agreement was reached for the Red Cross to mediate in the return of 27 North Koreans, out of a group of 31, to the North.
Their return has been delayed by problems with the boat in which they drifted across the border.
The South's deputy national security adviser, Kim Tae-hyo, said that "smart aid" to the impoverished North remained on the agenda.
"From the humanitarian point of view, the government is pushing for aid for children and the vulnerable in North Korea," Mr Kim said.