The move is designed to open high-level dialogue with North Korea and address an outstanding dispute over the North's deadly attacks on the South in 2010, which has kept the two Koreas from moving their relationship forward.
"The government keeps its door open for dialogue with North Korea," Unification Minister Yu Woo-ik said in a news conference after briefing President Lee Myung-bak on the ministry's policy goals for this year.
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Yu also dangled the prospect of massive aid to the impoverished northern neighbor if Pyongyang "makes a wise choice and determination" to engage in dialogue with South Korea.
The top official, who is in charge of relations with North Korea, said he could propose Cabinet-level talks with North Korea if certain conditions are met.
He stopped short of offering a specific time frame and called for patience, noting the situation is not yet ripe as the North tries for internal stability following Kim's death.
North Korea's new leader Kim Jong-un, believed to be in his late 20s, appears to be consolidating the power he inherited upon the death last month of his father, Kim Jong-il, according to officials and experts.
The two Koreas have held more than 20 rounds of Cabinet-level talks, the highest channel of regular dialogue, to boost reconciliation and cross-border projects in the seven years since a landmark summit in 2000.
However, no high-level talks have been held since 2008 when Lee's conservative government took power in Seoul with a hard-line policy toward Pyongyang.
However, the nuclear envoys of South and North Korea met twice last year to discuss ways on how to resume international talks on ending Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programs.
Yu suggested diplomatic efforts by regional powers to resume the disarmament-for-aid talks could also help the two Koreas engage in dialogue.
South Korea and the United States have pressed North Korea to take concrete steps to demonstrate its commitment to denuclearization before restarting the nuclear talks that also involve China, Japan and Russia.
Yu's comments came three days after Lee left open a "window of opportunity" in an attempt to improve the soured relations. Last week, the North vowed not to deal with Lee's government, citing what it claims as South Korea's hideous crimes following the death of leader Kim Jong-il.
Seoul did not send an official mourning delegation to Pyongyang, although it approved a condolence trip by private delegations led by two high-profile women who have ties with North Korea.
Yu also said South Korea will urge North Korea to stop any possible attempt to intervene in South Korea's parliamentary and presidential elections scheduled for April and December of this year, respectively.
North Korea's state propaganda media carried dozens of articles critical of South Korea's ruling Grand National Party ahead of the Seoul mayoral election in October, in what was Pyongyang's latest bid to influence South Korean voters.
Despite these tensions, South Korea plans to consider expanding humanitarian aid to vulnerable North Koreans through U.N. agencies, while pushing for academic and cultural exchanges with the North, according to the Unification Ministry.
entropy@yna.co.kr
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