South Korea is willing to talk with North Korea on all issues of mutual concern if dialogue resumes, Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo said Wednesday.

Hong said the government is conducting an internal review on specific agenda items and the level of discussions, but those have to be finalized through consultations with North Korea.

In the Aug. 25 deal ending a military standoff, the two Koreas agreed to hold talks "between their authorities in Pyongyang or Seoul at an early date to improve inter-Korean ties and have multifaceted dialogue and negotiations in the future."

"But there has been no big progress yet in (efforts to open) government-level talks," the minister said at a forum in Seoul.

He added that the government "partly understands" a call for expanding economic cooperation with the North to help keep the momentum created by the Aug. 25 agreement.

In order to lift a set of sanctions on Pyongyang, known as the May 24th Measure, a "responsible" step needs to be taken by the communist neighbor, he stressed.

The sanctions were imposed in 2010 after the North's torpedo attack on a South Korean warship that killed 46 sailors. The May 24th Measure has prohibited all inter-Korean economic activities, except for the Kaesong Industrial Complex.

On the Pyongyang-Beijing relationship, he pointed out that it has repeatedly gone through ups and downs every a few years.

The relations between the two sides appear to be warming with a visit to Pyongyang by Liu Yunshan, the ruling Communist Party's fifth-ranked official, earlier this month.

Liu made the trip to North Korea to attend a massive military parade, becoming the highest-level Chinese official to travel there in years.

"It seems like North Korea-China relations have recovered faster than expected as North Korea showed an active attitude (toward China) on the occasion of the (Oct. 10) military parade," Hong said. (Yonhap)