Seoul 'resolute' on N. Korea: official

SEOUL, Sept. 4 (Yonhap) -- The government will maintain its "resolute" stance
toward North Korea despite signs the communist country may have adopted a more
conciliatory policy, a senior policymaker said Friday.
Speaking in a workshop on North Korean defectors who have settled in the South,
Vice Unification Minister Hong Yang-ho said Seoul's aim is to get Pyongyang to
come to talks designed to end the nuclear standoff and ease tension.
North Korea earlier this year tested its second nuclear device and launched a
long-range rocket, triggering international sanctions and further exacerbating
inter-Korean relations that have been souring since early 2008.
However, the North softened its rhetoric in recent months by offering to talk
directly with the United States. It also released two American female reporters
and agreed to lift restrictions it unilaterally imposed late last year that have
hurt businesses operating in the Kaesong industrial complex. In addition, it sent
a delegation to the funeral of former President Kim Dae-jung last month, with the
chief delegate meeting President Lee Myung-bak.
"There have been conciliatory gestures by the North that can be viewed as a good
sign, but since the country has declined to come back to the six-party talks or
give up its nuclear weapons, we cannot see the changes as being fundamental," he
said.
Hong stressed that such a move could be a "tactical shift" and not a change in
overall strategy.
"Under such circumstances, Seoul will not make any hasty decision or assessments,
but stay faithful to its long-held principles," the official said.
yonngong@yna.co.kr
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