Seoul Says N Korea Must Abstain From Preconditions in Talks With S Korea

A spokesman for Seoul’s unification ministry said at a press briefing Friday that North Korea should refuse from preconditions in the talks with South Korea.

MOSCOW, January 2 (Sputnik) – North Korea should refrain from preconditions in the talks with South Korea, Seoul-based Yonhap news agency reported Friday, quoting a ministry spokesman.

"The North will have to engage in dialogue without attaching preconditions, if it has a genuine will for the improvement of South-North ties," a spokesman for Seoul’s unification ministry, Lim Byeong-cheol, said at a press briefing Friday, as quoted by Yonhap.

The spokesman stressed that Seoul is not restricting the format of talks with Pyongyang.

On Thursday, Yonhap reported that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said in his New Year’s Eve address that he was willing to hold summit talks with South Korean president Park Geun-hye this year.

The statement came after South Korea’s presidential committee on reunification offered to hold ministerial talks with Pyongyang in January, 2015. The talks are meant to address all pending issues including the reunion of families separated by the Korean War, according to Yonhap.

North Korea and South Korea are still formally at war, as no peace treaty was ever signed after the 1950-1953 war.