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South Korean president remains calm despite recent tension with the North

South Korea will deal calmly with North Korea despite recent actions that have raised cross-border tensions, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak vowed yesterday.

The conservative leader, in a televised news conference, said the two Koreas were in “an adjustment period” after he took over in February following 10 years of rule by liberal presidents.

Lee has promised a firmer line on North Korea, linking aid to nuclear disarmament in a move that has angered Pyongyang.

Tensions mounted after the North kicked South Korean officials out of a joint industrial complex at Kaesong on March 27. The next day, it test-fired missiles and alleged Seoul had breached the sea border.

The North also accused the South of planning a pre-emptive attack and threatened to turn its neighbor into “ashes” in response.

Lee said: “With various changes happening at home and abroad, inter-Korean relations are going through an adjustment period in which the decade-old established framework is being formed anew. From such a point of view, the government has been handling North Korea’s recent provocative remarks and acts in a principled, calm and resolute way.”

Lee reiterated his government would help North Korea if it abandons its nuclear weapons programs through a six-nation process.

But he warned against its attempts to drive a wedge in the US-South Korean alliance. US and North Korean envoys met in Singapore last week to try to end an impasse in the nuclear disarmament deal.

Some analysts say Pyongyang wants a direct deal with Washington, ignoring other six-party members and especially South Korea.

“The new government will advance together with the United States ... in the strategy on North Korea’s nuclear issue,” Lee said. “I make it clear that North Korea’s strategy to ignore South Korea and work with the United States cannot be successful and will not be.”
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