Seoul (AsiaNews / Agencies) - A liaison office in their respective capitals, to facilitate communication and dialogue between Seoul and Pyongyang. This is the proposal made today by South Korean President Lee Myung-bak. It follows North Korean regime’s new year’s message, in which it agrees to "improving relations" with South Korea and the United States.
The signalled relaxation in relations between the two governments, indicates a possible step forward after two years of tension, verbal skirmishes and military nuclear tests by the Pyongyang regime. The two Koreas are still formally at war, since a peace agreement to end of the conflict in the 50s was never signed.
In a New Year message to the nation, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak called for a "turning point in relations between North and South". He also urged Pyongyang to "return to the six-party nuclear negotiating table" to help "open the door to cooperation" between the two countries.
Lee proposes a "permanent" channel of dialogue, through which contacts can begin to be made. He has not clarified the terms of the proposal. Kim Eun-hye, a spokesman for the president, states that the speech is "in line" with the Lee’s 2008 proposal, in which he suggested a "liaison office" of South Korea in Pyongyang and a corresponding one from the North in Seoul.
January first last the official North Korean KCNA agency issued a statement in which Pyongyang calls for the "end of hostile relations with the United States" and the desire to "denuclearise" the Korean peninsula.
