YONHAP NEWS

(LEAD) N. Korea snubs S. Korea's dialogue offer as 'hypocritical'

   SEOUL, Dec. 22 (Yonhap) -- North Korea said Monday that South Korea's offers of inter-Korean dialogue are "hypocritical," and that it will not lend an ear unless Seoul first reverses its tough policy toward Pyongyang.

   "Hypocritical is the 'dialogue' much publicized by those who seek confrontation with daggers hidden behind their belts. No one would lend an ear" to such offers, Rodong Sinmun, published by the North's Workers' Party, said in a commentary.

   The accusation was the latest from North Korea, which blames the South for the strain in recent inter-Korean relations. Cross-border ties have dramatically soured during the first year of the conservative Lee Myung-bak government, which suspended food aid to Pyongyang and urged the North to come clean on its nuclear ambitions and about 1,000 South Koreans supposedly held in the communist country if it wants Seoul's assistance.

   North Korea retaliated by evicting hundreds of South Koreans at the joint industrial complex in its border town of Kaesong as of Dec 1. It also curtailed border traffic and halted South Korean tours to its mountain resort.

   Lee has repeatedly stressed that his government is willing to engage in dialogue. In his latest gesture to Pyongyang early this month, he said, "The South and the North should meet and talk ... Inter-Korean relations should not be used politically, and I have no intention of doing so," he said.

   The North dismissed the offer as a rhetoric.

   "The spate of nonsensical talk about 'dialogue' made by the group is nothing but a revelation of its criminal intention to mislead public opinion at home and abroad and misuse inter-Korean dialogue for achieving their sinister political aim," the newspaper said.

   Pyongyang insists that to thaw the frozen ties, the Seoul government should reverse its hard-line policy toward the North and implement large-scale economic aid projects promised by Lee's liberal predecessors, Roh Moo-hyun and Kim Dae-jung.
Last week, the North's weekly, the Tongil Sinbo, echoed the criticism.

   "If the South Korean authorities have the slightest notion of starting dialogue, they should make up their minds to withdraw the confrontational policy ... Without that, their offer of dialogue is nothing but wordplay," it said.

   hkim@yna.co.kr
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