The ruling party expressed mixed views Monday on whether the government should keep sanctions on North Korea as it marks the fifth anniversary this week of the North's deadly sinking of a South Korean warship.

On March 26, 2010, the South Korean corvette, Cheonan, sank near the western maritime border with North Korea, killing 46 sailors on board. An international investigation concluded that the North torpedoed the ship, but the communist country has flatly denied the accusations.

In May of that year, South Korea halted all cross-border trade and exchanges with the North, leaving only the joint industrial park in Kaesong, a North Korean border town, in operation.

Liberal groups have long demanded that the government lift the sanctions to ease tensions and improve ties between the Koreas, but the conservative administrations of then President Lee Myung-bak and incumbent President Park Geun-hye have insisted the North first apologize and punish those responsible for the sinking.

Rep. Yoo Seong-min, the floor leader of Park's ruling Saenuri Party, voiced opposition to the sanctions' removal.

"If we recall the past from five years ago, it's impossible to unilaterally lift (the sanctions) as if nothing happened," he said during a party meeting.

Rep. Kim Young-woo, a ruling party member of the parliamentary foreign affairs and unification committee, expressed agreement with Yoo's view.

"If (the sanctions) were to be lifted suddenly as if nothing happened, that would damage the principle and consistency of our policy on North Korea," he said in a phone call with Yonhap News Agency.

Other ruling party members, however, called for a change in the government's stance, saying it should pursue new policies in its push for inter-Korean reunification.

"Under the May 24 measures, humanitarian aid is possible but even that hasn't been done so far," Kim Moo-sung, the party's chairman, said in a meeting with reporters, referring to the sanctions. "By doing this more enthusiastically, I believe it's possible to take the middle way." (Yonhap)