ID :
205058
Sat, 09/03/2011 - 17:07
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/205058
The shortlink copeid
Pyongyang urges Seoul to improve inter-Korean ties
SEOUL, Sept. 3 (Yonhap) -- North Korea asked South Korea Saturday to abandon its hard-line policy toward its communist neighbor, indicating that the recent appointment in Seoul of a new Cabinet minister in charge of cross-border relations may be a new starting point.
In a partial Cabinet shakeup last week, President Lee Myung-bak named his former chief of staff, Yu Woo-ik, to replace Hyun Ik-taek as unification minister. Hyun, a former university professor, has been known for his hawkish stance on the North.
The appointment of Yu, known as a moderate, has aroused speculation that the Lee government may be willing to shift its hard-line policy toward the North during the remainder of its five year term which ends in early 2013.
Yu, also a former geology professor, is a close confidant of the President. He had worked as chief of staff to the Prsident before becoming South Korea's ambassador to China two years ago.
"It is fortunate that the unification minister was replaced, though belatedly...," a spokesman for the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said in a report by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
"The South Korean authorities should clearly understand that they can get nothing as long as they turn their faces away from the north-south relations," the spokesman also said in the report, monitored in Seoul.
The North has repeatedly hurled scorns on the outgoing unification minister, calling him a "traitor," or a "despicable human scum" and warning that inter-Korean ties won't be repaired as long as he stayed in the position.
The Cabinet shakeup has raised speculation that the Lee government may be willing to improve ties with Pyongyang amid international efforts to resume long-stalled six-party talks on ending North Korea's nuclear weapons programs.
In July, the nuclear envoys of the two Koreas met for the first time in more than two years on the sidelines of an Asian security meeting in Indonesia. Last month, U.S. and North Korean officials met in New York.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has also recently called for a quick resumption of the nuclear talks that have been stalled since late 2009.
In a partial Cabinet shakeup last week, President Lee Myung-bak named his former chief of staff, Yu Woo-ik, to replace Hyun Ik-taek as unification minister. Hyun, a former university professor, has been known for his hawkish stance on the North.
The appointment of Yu, known as a moderate, has aroused speculation that the Lee government may be willing to shift its hard-line policy toward the North during the remainder of its five year term which ends in early 2013.
Yu, also a former geology professor, is a close confidant of the President. He had worked as chief of staff to the Prsident before becoming South Korea's ambassador to China two years ago.
"It is fortunate that the unification minister was replaced, though belatedly...," a spokesman for the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said in a report by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
"The South Korean authorities should clearly understand that they can get nothing as long as they turn their faces away from the north-south relations," the spokesman also said in the report, monitored in Seoul.
The North has repeatedly hurled scorns on the outgoing unification minister, calling him a "traitor," or a "despicable human scum" and warning that inter-Korean ties won't be repaired as long as he stayed in the position.
The Cabinet shakeup has raised speculation that the Lee government may be willing to improve ties with Pyongyang amid international efforts to resume long-stalled six-party talks on ending North Korea's nuclear weapons programs.
In July, the nuclear envoys of the two Koreas met for the first time in more than two years on the sidelines of an Asian security meeting in Indonesia. Last month, U.S. and North Korean officials met in New York.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has also recently called for a quick resumption of the nuclear talks that have been stalled since late 2009.
