Seoul, August 24: South Korea and the United States will not be swayed by North Korea’s peace overtures unless it gives up its nuclear weapons, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday.
Senior visiting North Korean officials met President Lee Myung-Bak on Sunday to deliver a verbal message from their leader Kim Jong-Il, the latest in a series of conciliatory gestures by the communist state after months of sabre-rattling.
“Both countries have agreed that the South Korea-US response would remain unchanged unless there is a fundamental change to North Korea’s attitude toward denuclearisation,” said Ministry spokesman Moon Tae-Young.
Seoul officials earlier held talks with the US special envoy on North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, and the US diplomat tasked with enforcing United Nations sanctions, Philip Goldberg.
Moon said Seoul and Washington would “faithfully implement” the sanctions resolution “while leaving the door always open for dialogue and urging North Korea to return to six-party talks”.
Kim’s message to Lee — frequently vilified by the North’s media as a “traitor” and US sycophant — was not disclosed.
But both sides in the presidential talks expressed hopes for warmer relations after more than a year of heightened cross-border tensions.
International anxiety has also risen since the North’s missile and nuclear tests earlier this year and the subsequent UN sanctions.
–Agencies