Pyongyang rebuffs Seoul call for talks Friday, 03 February 2012 04:20

Seoul: North Korea’s top ruling body yesterday again rebuffed South Korea’s call for talks, saying Seoul’s conservative leaders should first “repent of their crimes” and honour past summit agreements.

Seoul has said there is a “window of opportunity” for dialogue to ease tense relations after the death of Pyongyang’s longtime leader Kim Jong-il on December 17.

The North’s new regime headed by Kim’s youngest son Jong-un has repeatedly rejected any dealings with the South’s leaders, blasting them as “traitors” to the Korean people.

The National Defence Commission yesterday issued what it called a questionnaire to the government of South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak -- and told him to stop talking about dialogue until he has responded.

The response came one day after a top US diplomat told Pyongyang that it must improve ties with Seoul if it wants better relations with Washington.

The North accuses Lee’s government of failing to respect the late Kim by briefly ordering troops on alert after his death, and by restricting private mourning delegations to Pyongyang.

In yesterday’s statement, carried by its official news agency, the North asked Seoul’s leaders whether they were ready to “deeply repent of their crimes” after Kim’s death and to apologise.

The nuclear-armed North also told the South to honour cooperation agreements reached at summits in 2000 and 2007; halt major exercises with US troops; work for denuclearisation; and halt “vicious” smear campaigns. It reiterated calls for a peace agreement to replace the armistice that ended the 1950-53 war, and told the South to scrap a tough law which punishes unauthorised contacts with its neighbour.

It urged Lee’s government “to be well aware of its plight, stop talking about north-south dialogue and improved relations and double-think whether it has qualifications to be a dialogue partner of the DPRK (North Korea).”

Seoul rejected the questionnaire as “unreasonable” and urged Pyongyang to show a “sincere” attitude.

“Our government feels regret at the unreasonable allegations made by North Korea for the sake of its propaganda,” said an official at the South’s unification ministry in charge of cross-border ties.

Military tensions have been high since the South accused the North of torpedoing a warship which sank near the disputed border in March 2010 with the loss of 46 young South Korean sailors.

The North denied mounting any attack. But in November 2010, it shelled a South Korean border island and killed four people in what it called a response to a provocative artillery drill by Seoul.

The latest statement told Seoul to “announce before the world” that it would no longer hurt the North over the two incidents.

Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said on Wednesday the United States is open to diplomacy with the North’s new leaders if they improve ties with South Korea. AFP

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