N. Korea Waiting for 'Strong Signals' from Seoul for Resuming Talks: Report

SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korea is willing and ready to resume strained reconciliation talks with South Korea, but will do so only if Seoul's conservative government shows strong commitment to previous agreements reached between the divided Koreas, a German legislator was quoted as saying on Sept. 5 in Pyongyang.

Hartmut Koschyk, chairman of the German-Korean parliamentary group, said the
socialist country is waiting for Seoul to send "strong signals,"
Germany's DPA news agency reported.

Koschyk's remarks came after a meeting with the North's titular head of state,
Kim Yong-nam, the president of the presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly,
the report said.

"Inter-Korean relations depend on how South Korea acts," Koschyk quoted
Kim as saying.

This is the first time a ranking North Korean official has suggested a possible
solution to the impasse in inter-Korean dialogue.

North Korea walked away from all official talks with South Korea shortly after
Seoul's Lee Myung-bak government was inaugurated in February, citing a series of
remarks by Seoul's new governing officials that it claimed hinted at increased
hostility, if not a preemptive strike, against Pyongyang.

Koschyk said the North especially wants to see Seoul's clear commitment to
agreements reached at inter-Korean summits in 2000 and 2007.

However, the Lee Myung-bak administration has repeatedly expressed its commitment
to upholding and even improving the summit agreements, which call for various
economic and social projects that can help improve the North's staggering economy
and reconcile the divided Koreas.