NKorea officially offers SKorea to hold talks on economic ties.

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12/1 Tass 162

SEOUL, January 12 (Itar-Tass) - North Korea officially offered South
Korea on Wednesday to hold negotiations in February on the development of
economic cooperation between the two countries, the South Korean Ministry
of Unification reported.
In its two messages to Seoul, Pyongyang offers to conduct on February
9 negotiations on further development of the inter-Korean Kaesong
industrial complex, and discuss on February 11 the renewal of trips to
North Korea by South Korean nationals.
These initiatives have coincided in time with the completion of work
on Wednesday to restore direct ties between the Red Cross societies of the
two countries in the border settlement of Panmunjom, in the Demilitarised
Zone dividing the two Koreas.
Pyongyang stopped this activity in May 2010 after Seoul had accused
North Korea of sinking the Cheonan corvette in the Yellow Sea. Despite a
further aggravation of relations between North Korea and South Korea
triggered by the shelling by North Korea of the Yeonpyeong Island last
November, Pyongyang has stepped up activity towards softening a tough
stance of Seoul through different initiatives.
However, the official Seoul does not take these moves seriously,
considering them as an attempt to receive economic and humanitarian aid,
which North Korea badly needs, the Yonhap news agency reports in this
connection.
The South Korean officials have repeatedly stated that Seoul does not
consider these peace initiatives sincere and will not meet North Korea
halfway before it demonstrates through deeds the sincerity of its
aspirations and commitments as concerns denuclearisation and apologies for
its provocations.
-0-zhe/kud


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