Park urges N. Korea to come forward for talks with S. Korea

By KH디지털2

Published : Jan. 6, 2015 - 15:32

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President Park Geun-hye urged North Korea Tuesday to quickly come forward for talks with South Korea, just days after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un offered conditional summit talks with her.

South Korea proposed in late December that the two rival Koreas hold ministerial talks in January to discuss such bilateral issues as the reunion of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.

In his New Year's address last Thursday, the North's leader said he is willing to hold summit talks with Park, if proper conditions are met. Kim also said North Korea could resume high-level talks and other forms of governmental dialogue with South Korea.

Still, North Korea has yet to reply to South Korea's recent offer to hold talks this month.

Park called on North Korea to demonstrate its commitment to improving ties with South Korea by actions.

"North Korea should quickly come forward for inter-Korean dialogue and cooperation and substantially handle with us specific projects for the establishment of peace and unification on the Korean Peninsula," Park said in a Cabinet meeting.

Still, questions linger whether the two Koreas could hold any sincere talks as Kim threatened in last week's message that North Korea will "sternly react" to any provocation and military drills in apparent reference to anti-Pyongyang leaflets and South Korea's annual joint military drills with the U.S.

The two Koreas had agreed to hold high-level contact between late October and early November during a surprise visit to South Korea by a high-powered North Korean delegation. But the North later backtracked on the deal in protest of the leaflets that North Korean defectors in South Korea regularly send to their homeland to try to encourage North Koreans to rise up against Kim.

The North has repeatedly urged South Korea to scrap its annual military exercises with the U.S., viewing them as a rehearsal for a nuclear war against it.

South Korea has said it has no plan to make a change with regard to the schedule of its joint defense drills with the U.S.

Seoul and Washington have repeatedly said such exercises are purely defensive in nature.

Also Tuesday, Park reiterated her call to pass a bill meant to overhaul the pension system for civil servants before her single five-year term ends in early 2018. By law, Park cannot seek re-election.

Park called on officials to cooperate with the parliament and hold dialogue with civil servants to ensure a reasonable bill wins parliamentary endorsement.

The case for pension reform has gained urgency as the increasing average life expectancy for Koreans could further deepen the pension deficit, though the move has sparked outrage from civil servants who claim the proposed reform could endanger their livelihoods. (Yonhap)

Park urges N. Korea to come forward for talks with S. Korea

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