(LEAD) Seoul rules out unilateral removal of sanctions on North
2014/08/18 16:53
SEOUL, Aug. 18 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will not lift its sanctions against North Korea unilaterally, Seoul's unification minister said Monday, urging the North to come to the negotiating table if it wants them to be removed.
Seoul put the so-called May 24 sanctions in place in 2010 after the North torpedoed the South Korean Navy corvette Cheonan. The sanctions virtually cut off all economic and cultural exchanges between the two Koreas, except for a joint economic factory park in the North Korean border town of Kaesong. The North has repeatedly called for the removal of the punitive measures.
"It's difficult to imagine the (South Korean) government unilaterally lifting the sanctions," Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae told lawmakers.
"If (Pyongyang) needs the May 24 sanctions to be removed, it should come to the negotiating table and discuss it there," the unification minister said as he reported the ministry's 2014 policy plan to the parliament's diplomatic affairs committee.
The minister's appeal for talks followed the ministry's call on North Korea earlier in the day to accept Seoul's offer to hold high-level talks last week.
Seoul suggested a week earlier that the two Koreas hold high-level talks to discuss the reunion of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War and other mutual issues. Pyongyang, however, had not issued any official answer as of Monday.
According to the ministry's 2014 policy implementation plan, the government also plans to consider renovating North Korea's main road and railway as part of new joint economic cooperation projects with Pyongyang if inter-Korean relations improve enough.
Seoul would upgrade the road connecting North Korea's southern border town of Kaesong to the capital, Pyongyang, and the railway linking Kaesong to the northern city of Sinuiju, according to the policy report.
The renovation plan was part of a package of joint inter-Korean economic projects to be pushed by Seoul down the road.
The package also includes flood prevention efforts at a North Korean river, assistance for North Korea's fishing industry as well as closer inter-Korean cooperation in the shipping field.
The fate of the joint economic plans is unclear, however, given the years of icy relations between Seoul and Pyongyang.
"The establishment of the latest policy implementation plan laid the groundwork for Seoul's consistent mid-term policy plans toward North Korea," a ministry official said.
In order to discuss a comprehensive set of inter-Korean issues, Seoul will also seek to set up regular high-level talks as well as working-level dialogues with the North, the policy report also said.
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