DPRK reunification body urges ROK to accept dialogue proposal

Xinhua, January 10, 2011

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Monday reiterated its call for South Korea to accept its proposal to restart the inter-Korean dialogue at an early date.

The new appeals were made in articles published by the website uriminzohkkiri.com of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea.

The DPRK government, political parties and social institutions issued a joint statement on Jan. 5 proposing dialogue with South Korea to seek ways of removing misunderstanding and distrust.

The committee on reunification then suggested Saturday an "unconditional and early" opening of the inter-Korean talks on tourism, an industrial zone and Red Cross-related issues. But the latest offer was turned down Monday by South Korea's unification ministry.

In the articles, the DPRK website said both sides "should sit down and have broad dialogue and negotiations" to improve the North-South relationship.

South Korean authorities' billing of the dialogue proposal as a "disingenuous peace offensive" was "ridiculous", it said.

Taking talks over the nuclear issue as a precondition for improving the North-South relationship is a unilateral move to ask the DPRK to drop its nuclear plan first and make the inter-Korean talks affiliated to the six-party talks, it said.

"The issues related to North-South relations, which are vital to the destiny of the nation, definitely can't become an appendix of the nuclear issue and a plaything of outsiders' interests," the articles said.

Tensions have been running high on the Korean Peninsula after an exchange of artillery fire between the DPRK and South Korea in disputed waters off the peninsula's west coast last November. Seoul later staged a series of military drills in that area despite Pyongyang's repeated warnings of counterattack.