South Korea reacted coolly Monday to North Korea’s latest offer of dialogue, telling the communist country to show sincerity and act to ease high tensions.
The North — in its latest apparent peace overture less than two months after a deadly bombardment of a South Korean island — on Saturday proposed an “unconditional and early opening” of talks.
Tensions soared after the North shelled the border island on Nov. 23 and killed four people, including civilians.
Seoul’s unification ministry, which handles cross-border relations, played down the latest message.
“It’s hard to consider it as a sincere offer of dialogue,” said spokesman Chun Hae-sung, adding the North should first show it is serious about nuclear disarmament.
“North Korea must also take responsible steps our people can accept” over the shelling and the sinking of a South Korean warship in March last year, Chun said.
The South says the North torpedoed the ship near the disputed Yellow Sea border with the loss of 46 lives, a charge the North denies.
In a New Year message, Pyongyang had called for improved relations with Seoul. Last week, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said he was open to talks and held out the prospect of closer economic ties “if the North exhibits sincerity.”
Pyongyang’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland said on Saturday there was “neither conditionality in the North’s proposal for dialogue, nor need to cast any doubt about its real intention.”
The committee’s proposal was seen as more formal than earlier overtures, but South Korea wants a request through official channels.
“The door for dialogue is open if North Korea shows a sincere attitude,” Chun said, adding that Seoul would review the North’s proposal after monitoring its behavior.
Analysts said the overtures follow US demands that the North improve relations with the South before six-party nuclear disarmament talks resume.
The North quit the forum in April 2009 and staged a nuclear test a month later, its second since 2006.
It has expressed conditional willingness to return to dialogue, but raised security fears last November by disclosing a uranium enrichment plant to visiting US experts.
The North said the plant was designed to fuel peaceful power generation, but experts say it could easily be reconfigured to make weapons-grade uranium.
“North Korea must take actions instead of words about denuclearization,” Chun said.
The Korea JoongAng Daily said yesterday that Seoul would first test Pyongyang’s sincerity by seeking UN Security Council action over the uranium program.
“It is based on the judgment that we could move forward toward dialogue with North Korea only after easing some of the anti-North Korean sentiment at home as a result of the Security Council action,” an unnamed foreign ministry official was quoted as saying.
The official said that if the North strongly resists a Security Council measure, it will prove that its offer of dialogue is “only a tactic to divert attention.”
A foreign ministry spokesman refused to confirm the report, but said the government “hopes the international community will take a stern response to North Korea’s uranium enrichment.”
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