Lee says S. Korea to seek 'principled dialogue' with N. Korea

SEOUL, July 26 (Yonhap) -- President Lee Myung-bak said Tuesday South Korea will continue to seek "principled dialogue" with North Korea to break the deadlock in their relations, according to a senior presidential aide, amid rising hopes for better ties after last week's meeting of the two sides' nuclear envoys.
The remark appears to mean that the South will engage North Korea in talks, but genuine reconciliation with the communist nation would be out of question unless Pyongyang takes responsibility for last year's two deadly attacks on the South.
Lee made the comment during a Cabinet meeting earlier in the day, senior presidential spokesman Kim Du-woo told reporters, amid conflicting media reports about Seoul's stance on how to handle relations with the North amid a flurry of diplomacy with Pyongyang.
"The government's position is (to seek) principled dialogue," Lee was quoted as saying.
Last week, the nuclear envoys of the two Koreas held bilateral talks that Seoul has demanded as one of the conditions for restarting broader six-party nuclear talks. The rare meeting in Bali, Indonesia, sparked a chain reaction of diplomatic contacts, including a planned trip to the U.S. by a top North Korean diplomat.
The fast-moving developments spurred hopes that the long-running stalemate in inter-Korean relations and the six-party nuclear talks' process could be broken. But they also prompted criticism that Seoul appears to be backing down from its demand that the North apologize for last year's attacks.
"The remark means by itself that we will engage in inter-Korean dialogue while sticking to our principles," Kim said. "There is no way to keep the principles without holding any dialogue at all, and we cannot stick to dialogue by giving up principles."
Kim also cautioned against hasty optimism about inter-Korean ties, saying chances of rapid improvement in relations between the two Koreas or in the six-party nuclear talks are not high.
"It appears that chances are slim that the North Korea-U.S. relations as well as the South-North relations will surge ahead," he said. "There should be fundamental changes (on the part of North Korea's attitude), and we have to see whether such parts are sorted out."
jschang@yna.co.kr