(LEAD) President Lee says inter-Korean relations will soon be repaired

SEOUL, Jan. 30 (Yonhap) -- The relationship between the divided Koreas will soon be repaired despite the current chill in ties, but only when North Korea realizes it has to work with South Korea to receive the help it needs, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said Friday.

The remarks came hours after a North Korean committee on unification and
inter-Korean affairs said the communist nation will no longer honor any political
or military agreements reached between the two Koreas.
"North Korea must realize which country out of the many nations in the world
sincerely works to help it. If the North thinks hard enough, it will realize it
is South Korea that will help it with compassion, and North Korea must realize
this," Lee said in nationally televised roundtable discussion.
Lee noted the inter-Korean relations under his administration, inaugurated 11
months ago, got off to a rough start, but said it is necessary for Pyongyang to
understand it cannot depend on brinkmanship diplomacy forever when dealing with
Seoul.
"I cannot say how long it will take to reunify (the two Koreas), but one year out
of the 60 years the two have been divided is not a long period of time if we want
to normalize the South-North relationship, and we are not just sitting idly," he
said.
The president said there must be a point in the inter-Korean relations where the
two Koreas can start to completely trust each other.
"The relationship in the past often became ruptured after a good run, and then
ruptured again. This was because the relationship set off wrong in the
beginning," said the president.
Pyongyang cut off nearly all dialogue with Seoul as Lee took a tougher stance on
the North than his liberal predecessors, linking humanitarian assistance to
progress in inter-Korean ties and multilateral talks aimed at denuclearizing the
North.
The North tried to significantly raise tension earlier Friday, vowing to discard
all military and political agreements with the South and nullify a maritime
border in the Yellow Sea. There have been two deadly naval clashes near the
border during the past decade.
Lee said the threat is "not new" or one that should cause serious concern.
Despite its repeated threats against Seoul, the North has been widely viewed as
taking an improved or affirmative posture toward the United States, prompting
suspicions here that Pyongyang is seeking to exclude the South in future
negotiations with the U.S. that could determine the fate of the Korean Peninsula.
The South Korean president noted this could have been possible in the past when
Seoul-Washington relations deteriorated under his liberal predecessors.
"There could have been such concerns when there was no trust between the U.S. and
Korea, but now the U.S. and Korea are not in that kind of a relationship," Lee
said.
He said U.S. President Barack Obama has personally assured him that Washington
will thoroughly discuss every issue that concerns the two Koreas and Northeast
Asia with Seoul.
"We are waiting for North Korea to understand that the South will work with an
open heart and compassion to help the North. I believe the South-North
relationship will improve before too long," said Lee.
bdk@yna.co.kr
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