South Korea calls for new talks (2 hours ago)

[samuel]

29 December 2010 Last updated at 05:00
South Korea calls for new talks

South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak has called for new six-party talks with North Korea.

Mr Lee said there was no choice but to try to dismantle North Korea's nuclear programme through diplomacy.

His comments follow a year of high tension, including exchanges of fire between North and South.

The talks format involves the two Koreas, China, Russia, Japan and the US, and had offered rewards to the North for ending its nuclear programme.

South Korea, the United States and Japan had previously said six-party talks could not resume until the North showed serious intent to change.

"(We) have no choice but to resolve the problem of dismantling North Korea's nuclear programme diplomatically through the six-party talks," said Mr Lee.

He was speaking after receiving the annual report from his foreign ministry.

Mr Lee said time was short for the international community to make progress on ending the North's nuclear threat because North Korea has set 2012 as its deadline to become a "great, powerful and prosperous" nation.

Tense times

The comments appear to mark a shift away from the hard-line he had taken after North Korea was accused of torpedoing a South Korean warship, the Cheonan, on 26 March.


That incident left 46 South Korean sailors dead.

On 23 November, North Korea shelled the South Korean island of Yeonbyeong, killing four South Koreans, including civilians.

North Korea and its ally China, meanwhile, expressed anger at huge military drills mounted by the South with its main ally the United States.

South Korean reports say that North Korea has also dramatically stepped up its military drills in the past year.

Western allies of South Korea were angered by revelations this year about the existence of another nuclear enrichment plant in North Korea.

The North has again defended this, saying it was for the production of civilian power sources only and would not have been necessary if the US had kept to earlier promises to supply such facilities.

The six-party negotiations led to the closure of a plutonium-producing reactor in 2007, but collapsed in April 2009 amid mutual recriminations, after which the North set off further nuclear tests.

Mr Lee Myung-bak also told his nation earlier this week that it must unite in the face of military aggression from the North.

On Sunday, it was announced that South Korean and Chinese defence ministers would meet in Beijing in February for talks on the situation.

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[samuel]

1 January 2011 Last updated at 01:37 GMT

North Korea calls for dialogue in new year message

North Korea has said it wants to improve relations with the South, in its annual New Year's Eve message.

But Pyongyang also vowed to increase its military strength, said the editorial published by state media.

The message comes amid increased tension following an artillery assault by the North on a South Korean island near a disputed border in November.

Since the attack, Seoul has embarked on a series of military exercises while ratcheting up its rhetoric.

In the editorial, the North said it was the "consistent stand" of the nation to "establish a lasting peace system on the Korean Peninsula and make it nuclear-free through dialogue and negotiations".

However it also said the military "should conduct intense combat training in an atmosphere of actual battle as required by the tense situation".

The two Koreas remain technically at war, since no peace treaty was signed after the 1950-53 Korean conflict.

[samuel]

Both sides have been conducting military drills amid the rising tension

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US envoy Stephen Bosworth will discuss North Korea with Chinese officials

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5 January 2011 Last updated at 22:29 GMT

North Korea calls for 'unconditional' talks with South

South Korean troops conduct military drills in Chulwon, near the DMZ (3 Jan 2011) Both sides have been conducting military drills amid the rising tension

North Korea wants "unconditional" talks with the South to put an end to months of extreme tension, the North's official news agency reports.

In a rare conciliatory gesture, KCNA said Pyongyang was ready to meet "anyone, anytime, anywhere", and proposed a mutual end to provocation.

The US, an ally of South Korea, responded by saying North Korea had to show "seriousness of purpose".

Tension has been high since the North shelled a Southern island in November.

KCNA said North Korea was proposing "having wide-ranging dialogue and negotiations" with Seoul, saying such co-operation was "the only way out from this serious situation".

"In order to mend the North-South relations, now at the lowest ebb, we will conduct positive dialogue and negotiations with the political parties and organisations of South Korea including its authorities," the statement said.

It proposed that both sides also put an end to "slanders and calumnies" of each other, and refrain from "any act of provoking each other in order to create an atmosphere of improving the inter-Korean relations".

US state department spokesman PJ Crowley said North Korea needed to "demonstrate it is sincere in the offer".

"There are still things that North Korea has to do to demonstrate a seriousness of purpose," he said.

He said "useful steps" would include ending provocative behaviour and for Pyongyang to recommit itself to a 2005 declaration on nuclear disarmament.

Mr Crowley said US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had discussed North Korea's offer with visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi. China is North Korea's key ally.
'Sincerity'

Pyongyang's late-night statement came as top US envoy Stephen Bosworth embarked on a new round of diplomacy in the region.

On Wednesday he held talks in Seoul with South Korea's foreign minister and chief nuclear negotiator.
US envoy Stephen Bosworth arrives in Beijing 5 Jan 2011 US envoy Stephen Bosworth will discuss North Korea with Chinese officials

The men agreed that so-called six-nation talks could only restart once North Korea had demonstrated a commitment to denuclearisation and to improving relations with the South, Yonhap reported.

The talks, involving the two Koreas, the US, China, Japan and Russia, have been stalled since April 2009.

Mr Bosworth later left for China.

The US envoy, who is visiting several north-east Asian capitals, said earlier that "serious negotiations must be at the heart of any strategy for dealing with North Korea and we look forward to being able to launch those at a reasonably early time".

Earlier this week, South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak offered closer economic ties with the North if it changed its course.

The US and Chinese presidents are due to meet in Washington later this month - with the issue of North Korea likely to be high on the agenda.

North Korea says the 23 November shelling of Yeonpyeong island, which killed four people, was in response to South Korean military exercises in the area - close to the disputed inter-Korean western maritime border.

The attacks came months after international investigators blamed Pyongyang for an attack on a South Korean warship which killed 46 sailors.

In the wake of the shelling of Yeonpyeong island, the US and South Korea held large-scale military exercises in the area.

[samuel]

South Korea has dismissed an apparent offer from North Korea of unconditional talks to ease tensions.

An official at the Unification Ministry in Seoul said it was not a serious proposal for dialogue, adding the offer was part of a propaganda campaign.

The US has also responded coolly, saying the North must first indicate it is serious about ending its provocations.

US envoy Stephen Bosworth is in China on a round of regional talks.

The visit by Mr Bosworth - America's top official on North Korea - is part of a fresh round of diplomacy on the issue.

Tensions have been high since a North Korean artillery attack on a South Korean island last November which left four people dead.
'Propaganda campaign'

On Wednesday, North Korea said it was offering "unconditional" talks with the South to put an end to months of extreme tension.

A South Korean official said North Korea needed to do more to convince them the proposal was serious.

"North Korea previously issued statements like this early in the year... they are normally done as part of [a] propaganda campaign toward the South," a Unification Ministry official quoted by Reuters news agency said.

"We do not consider this is as a serious proposal for dialogue. It is not even in the correct and appropriate format."

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo said Pyongyang also had to apologise for the attack and for the sinking of a South Korean warship in March 2010.

The US, an ally of South Korea, said North Korea had to show "seriousness of purpose".

China, meanwhile, said it would "support and welcome" any dialogue between the two Koreas. Beijing has called repeatedly for a return to talks.

The situation on the Korean peninsula has been very tense since the North shelled Yeonpyeong island on 23 November.

North Korea says the shelling was in response to South Korean military exercises in the area - close to the disputed inter-Korean western maritime border.

The attacks came months after international investigators blamed Pyongyang for an attack on a South Korean warship which killed 46 sailors.

In the wake of the shelling of Yeonpyeong island, the US and South Korea held large-scale military exercises in the area.

[samuel]

The North said it would reopen a liaison office near the border

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North Korea says it wants to reopen talks with the South - the latest in a series of conciliatory gestures.

The North's reunification committee issued a statement calling for "unconditional and early" talks.

Seoul officials said they would review the latest proposals from Pyongyang. The South dismissed a similar offer earlier this week as "propaganda".

The sinking of a Southern warship last March sparked a dramatic rise in tension on the peninsula.

The Cheonan was apparently sunk by a Northern torpedo, with the loss of 46 lives. The North denies the attack.

Since then, the South has irked the North by holding large-scale military exercises close to the maritime border.

On 23 November, the North infuriated the South by shelling one of its islands and killing four people.

But in the past week, the North has shifted away from statements threatening war and retaliation, to issuing offers of talks and peace overtures.

"The South Korean authorities should discard any unnecessary misgiving, open their hearts and positively respond to the North's proposal and measure," the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said on Saturday.

The committee suggested that the talks should take place later in January or early February.

The committee also said the North would reopen a liaison office with the South at a joint factory-complex just north of the demilitarised zone that divides the peninsula.

In response, Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung told the Associated Press news agency that the statement would be considered, but noted that no formal request had been received.