South Korea Ready For Peace Talks With North Korea

South Korea Ready For Peace Talks With North Korea

South Korea reached out to rival North Korea on Thursday, around three weeks after the death of the North's dictator Kim Jong-il, saying it wanted to reopen dialogue despite the North's rancorous outbursts.

"We are open to dialogue with North Korea," Foreign Minister Kim Sung-Hwan told reporters.

The outside world knows little about the secluded North, and both the United States and its ally South Korea appeared to be shocked when state media announced Kim Jong-il's death last month. The North has closed its borders since Kim's death, completely cutting it off from the outside world, although officials say that the succession process is going efficiently.

President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea angered North Korea by cutting off aid when he took office in 2008, and demanding nuclear disarmament and economic reform as conditions for food aid and political engagement.

Over the last few months, officials from North and South Korea and the United States have met for a series of talks aimed at restarting stalled aid-for-disarmament.

Washington appeared to be on the brink of resuming sending food aid to the impoverished North, and there were high hopes that Pyongyang was prepared to halt its nuclear programs,

The six party talks, involving North and South Korea, the United States, Japan, Russia and China, have been slowed down since 2008 when the North objected the deal.

Posted by James Fried on Friday January 06 2012, 11:19 AM EDT. Ref: Google. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0