Seoul (AsiaNews) – After two months of mutual provocations between North and South, South Korea’s rightwing president, Lee Myung-bak, said on Monday that the door for intra-Korean dialogue was “still open”. After suffering the loss of ROKS Cheonan and coming under shellfire on Yeonpyeong Island, both of which caused major loss of life, Seoul had openly spoken about the possibility of war along the 38th parallel. Now instead, it says it is ready for talks if the North abandons its warmongering rhetoric.
In his New Year policy address, Lee laid out his government’s guidelines. “The North must come to the realisation that nothing can be gained through military adventurism,” and that, “Nuclear weapons and military adventurism must be discarded,” he said.
“If the North exhibits sincerity, we have both the will and the plan to drastically enhance economic cooperation together with the international community," he added.
As he held out an offer of closer economic ties with the North, the president explained that the door for intra-Korean dialogue was “still open”. In so doing, he was indirectly responding to North Korean statements that called for intra-Korean rapprochement two days ago.
Although they did not offer any apology for North Korea’s recent actions or even admitted responsibility for them, North Korean media called for improved intra-Korean relations,
“North Korea is holding the key,” Kim Young-sun, spokesperson for South Korea’s Foreign Ministry, said. “What is more important than anything else is North Korea's seriousness,” he added, noting that in the past, leaders on both sides were able to settle peacefully issues that appeared nearly impossible to resolve.
The US envoy responsible for policy toward North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, is also scheduled to visit Seoul on Tuesday to discuss the next steps on the Korean Peninsula. He will then travel to Beijing and Tokyo for further consultations on North Korean issues.
China and Japan along with the two Koreas as well as Russia and the United States are parties to the six-nation talks on North Korean nuclear disarmament.