Talks without conditions, South Korea tells North
13 Jan 2015 1:11 AM GMT
South Korean President Park Geun-hye said on Monday that she is willing to hold a summit meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un without pre-conditions.
“My position is that to ease the pain of division and to accomplish peaceful unification, I am willing to meet with anyone,” Park said.
However, she stated that she would not accept the conditions set by Pyongyang and urged the Kim regime to take concrete steps toward de-nuclearisation.
In his New Year’s address, Kim Jong-un said that he was willing to hold a meeting with Park if certain requirements were met such as the cancellation of the regular military manoeuvres that Seoul and Washington hold in South Korea, which Pyongyang considers as a dress rehearsal for war.
North Korea made a direct request to the US to cancel the military exercises this year, hinting that it would at least temporarily halt nuclear testing if Washington yielded to its demands. In November, N Korea threatened to carry out a new nuclear test in response to a UN resolution that sought to refer human rights violations by the regime to the International Criminal Court.
“My position is that to ease the pain of division and to accomplish peaceful unification, I am willing to meet with anyone,” Park said.
However, she stated that she would not accept the conditions set by Pyongyang and urged the Kim regime to take concrete steps toward de-nuclearisation.
In his New Year’s address, Kim Jong-un said that he was willing to hold a meeting with Park if certain requirements were met such as the cancellation of the regular military manoeuvres that Seoul and Washington hold in South Korea, which Pyongyang considers as a dress rehearsal for war.
North Korea made a direct request to the US to cancel the military exercises this year, hinting that it would at least temporarily halt nuclear testing if Washington yielded to its demands. In November, N Korea threatened to carry out a new nuclear test in response to a UN resolution that sought to refer human rights violations by the regime to the International Criminal Court.
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