South Korea called yesterday for talks with North Korea on flood control and family reunions, following reports that Pyongyang wants to improve relations after months of hostility.
The South’s proposals reflect efforts to solve “various pending issues,” Seoul’s Unification Ministry said.
Ties have been strained by the North’s nuclear and missile tests this year.
Pyongyang has also been bitterly hostile to Seoul’s conservative government, which scrapped a “sunshine” aid and engagement policy. But it began making peace overtures to Seoul in August.
The South proposed holding talks on Friday at the North’s Mount Kumgang resort to discuss humanitarian issues such as more reunions for families separated since the Korean War, ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung said.
Seoul also called for separate talks tomorrow on ways to prevent floods in a cross-border river after six people were drowned in the South last month.
The North released millions of tonnes of water from a dam across the Imjin River on Sept. 6, sweeping away the South Koreans camping downstream. The incident stirred anger in the South and threatened to damage newly improving relations.
The North said a sudden surge in the dam’s water level prompted an emergency release. The South’s Defense Minister Kim Tae-young has said there was no evidence of a deliberate “water attack.”
In recent weeks the North has freed five South Korean detainees, eased curbs on the operation of a joint industrial estate, sent envoys for talks with President Lee Myung-bak and authorized a new round of family reunions.
Hundreds of separated relatives held reunions two weeks ago, the first such meetings in two years.
On Saturday the leaders of China, Japan and South Korea met in Beijing and urged the North’s to return soon to the disarmament forum.
“Our government has a firm position that North Korea must come back to six-party talks soon,” Chun said.
But Seoul is ready to deal with Pyongyang by considering “various circumstances” on the Korean Peninsula, he said.
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