Park says she can meet with N.K. leader unconditionally

SEOUL, Jan. 12 (Yonhap) -- South Korean President Park Geun-hye said Monday she can meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un without preconditions to lay the groundwork for a peaceful potential unification with Pyongyang. "I can meet with anyone if necessary to open the path of a peaceful unification," Park said in a nationally televised press conference. She attached no conditions for possible talks with Kim, though she said North Korea should demonstrate its sincerity and take steps toward denuclearization. Park's two liberal predecessors held summit talks with then North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, the late father of the current leader Kim, in Pyongyang in 2000 and 2007, respectively. Kim Jong-il died of heart failure in 2011. North Korea had agreed to abandon its nuclear weapons programs, but it later conducted nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013, drawing international condemnation and U.N. sanctions. The North has threatened to push for another nuclear test in protest of a U.N. resolution against its alleged human rights abuse. North Korea has recently offered to temporarily suspend nuclear tests in exchange for a halt to joint annual U.S.-South Korea military exercises, a demand rejected by Washington. Also Monday, Park pressed North Korea to come forward for talks with South Korea to arrange the reunion of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War. "North Korea should come forward for dialogue without hesitation," Park said. She also expressed hope that North Korea will agree to stage the reunion of separated families around Lunar New Year's Day, which falls on Feb. 19. She said the issue of family reunions is one that cannot be delayed, given the age of those in the separated families. Family reunions are a highly emotional issue on the divided Korean Peninsula, as most of the separated family members are in their 70s and 80s and want to see their long-lost relatives before they die. There are no direct means of contact between ordinary civilians of the two countries that remain divided by a heavily fortified border. entropy@yna.co.kr (END)