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S Korea proposes diplomatic link with North: report

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak will propose creating a permanent high-level diplomatic channel between the North and South, including establishing the first liaison offices in the nations’ capitals after nearly six decades of division, the Washington Post reported yesterday.

“Both North and South Korea must change their ways,” Lee said in an interview with the newspaper’s editors and reporters.

Lee embraced the recent US proposal to have North Korea “acknowledge” US concerns and evidence about its apparent efforts to enrich uranium and its suspected nuclear trading with Syria, rather than provide its own dossier on such activities, the Post said.

Lee said the solution would offer North Korea “an indirect way to being involved in these two activities,” therefore allowing the stalled negotiations to move forward.

Lee, a former construction chief executive nicknamed “The Bulldozer” for his determination to get things done, took office this year after a decade of rule in which South Korea has sought to reconcile with the North.

North Korea has hurled a series of what Lee calls “belligerent and bellicose” statements about the South Korean president since he took office earlier this year.

Lee told the Post that his administration remained “calm and collected” about Pyongyang’s attacks.

To that end, he said, he wanted to establish a permanent channel so the nations could have a regular dialogue, rather than intermittent contacts elicited by crises.

He said that offices should be headed by officials with direct access to the leaders of each country.

Also see: FEATURE: Quirky Air Koryo survives and, increasingly, thrives
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