Seoul says it honors accords with Pyongyang, calls for dialogue

(ATTN: RECASTS headline, lead; UPDATES with more of Seoul statement to respect
summit accords)
By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, Feb. 19 (Yonhap) -- Seoul's conservative government said on Thursday that
it respects all inter-Korean accords, including the two summit agreements reached
by its liberal predecessors, and urged North Korea to come back to the dialogue
table.

Pyongyang cut off cross-border dialogue early last year and recently warned of
armed clashes, accusing Seoul's Lee Myung-bak government of opposing the summit
accords of 2000 and 2007.
The Lee government has said it supports the "spirit" of the extensive political
and economic pacts but that implementation would be costly for South Korea. The
president has also set the North's denuclearization as a precondition to any
further cross-border investment.
With the latest message, delivered on the 17th anniversary of a landmark
non-aggression accord, Seoul is seen as softening its hardline stance towards
North Korea.
"This accord is based on the spirit of South and North Korea to reconcile, settle
peace on the peninsula and pursue prosperity together," Unification Ministry
spokesman Kim Ho-nyoun said in a briefing, referring to the South-North Basic
Agreement on Reconciliation, Nonaggression and Exchanges and Cooperation ratified
on this date in 1992.
The spokesman also emphasized the "implementation" of summit accords and other
pacts.
"We believe this spirit became the cornerstone for all inter-Korean agreements
reached thereafter," he said, "It is our government's position that the South and
the North should respect the agreements and should implement them through
discussion."
At the end of the Cold War era, the Koreas reached the Basic Agreement not to
invade each other and to work together towards reconciliation. It laid the
groundwork for summits reached between liberal South Korean presidents Kim
Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, in which Seoul
promised to help modernize roads, railways, factories and other dilapidated
industrial infrastructure in North Korea.
Pyongyang has officially demanded their complete implementation.
Taking office a year ago as the first conservative leader in a decade, Lee
adopted a tougher stance on the accords, which are expected to cost Seoul more
than 14 trillion won (US$9.5 billion).
Pyongyang cut off dialogue in response to Seoul's hardline stance and Seoul has
suspended food aid to the North.
In recent weeks, North Korea has ramped up its bellicose rhetoric. On Jan. 17,
Pyongyang vowed to take an "all-out confrontational posture" against Seoul, and
two weeks later it declared all political and military agreements with South
Korea void and said it will no longer respect the western sea border.
During the briefing, spokesman Kim proposed to Pyongyang that the two governments
"hold dialogue to discuss implementing the summit accords and other current
issues."
A recent report by a British lawmaker suggested that North Korea understands the
obstacles to carrying out the deals more than it lets on. David Alton quoted a
ranking North Korean official as admitting "there may be problems" in
implementing the summit accords.
"Although he accepted that there may be problems in implementation of some of the
provisions he stated that opposition to the documents is symbolic of the new
(Lee) government's opposition to the reunification of Korea," the report said of
Ri Jong-hyok, vice chairman of the Asia-Pacific Peace Committee, Pyongyang's arm
on inter-Korean affairs.
Alton and several other British lawmakers visited Pyongyang earlier this month.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)