Seoul hopes tensions between Koreas will ease
January 2nd, 2012 - 6:46 pm ICT by IANSMoscow, Jan 2 (IANS/RIA Novosti) South Korean President Lee Myung-bak Monday said that his country is ready to improve relations with North Korea if Pyongyang “shows its attitude of sincerity”, the Yonhap news agency reported.
The announcement comes shortly after Kim Jong-un, the younger son of the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, was declared “supreme leader of the party, state and army”.
“The most important target at this moment is peace and stability on the Korean peninsula,” Yonhap quoted Lee as saying. “If North Korea shows its attitude of sincerity, a new era on the Korean Peninsula can be opened.”
He warned, however, that Seoul would strongly respond to any North Korean provocation as Pyongyang had already said the international community should not “expect any change” in its policies after Kim Jong-il’s death of a heart attack Dec 17.
North and South Korea remain technically at war, since no peace treaty was signed following the Korean War in 1953.
Bilateral relations have seriously deteriorated since Lee Myung-bak became president in 2008 and took a tough stand on Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions by ending the unconditional supply of South Korean humanitarian aid to the North.
In 2010, North Korea attacked a border island with artillery fire, killing 50 South Koreans. The reclusive communist regime in Pyongyang has also been blamed for sinking a South Korean warship.
–IANS/RIA Novosti
snb/vt
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- South Koreans send anti-regime leaflets to North in balloons - Dec 22, 2011
- South Korea lifts temporary travel ban to North - Jan 04, 2012
- North Korea threatens to bury enemies at sea - Apr 05, 2012
- North Korea's top leader Kim Jong-il is dead (Second Lead) - Dec 19, 2011
- South Korea on high alert after Kim's death - Dec 19, 2011
- No hostility, South Korea tells North - Dec 22, 2011
- North Korean leader's son made general - Sep 28, 2010
- Documentary hails North Korea's new leader - Jan 09, 2012
- China's 'guarded response' puts onus on both Koreas to establish peace in Peninsula - Nov 24, 2010
- Kim Jong-il to be embalmed - Jan 12, 2012
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