North Korea Monday officially proposed dialogue with South Korea, less than two months after launching a deadly bombardment of a border island, but a sceptical Seoul quickly rejected the offer. The South said it was willing to hold government-level talks, but only if the North admits responsibility for a series of provocations and confirms a commitment to scrapping its nuclear programme.
The North's official news agency said three state bodies sent notices to the South's unification ministry calling for talks and announcing the reopening this Wednesday of a Red Cross border liaison office. They proposed holding a working-level contact in the North's border city of Kaesong on January 27, and suggested talks between Red Cross organisations from the two sides in the South's city of Munsan on February 1. "Our side will not accept the North's proposals," said Lee Jong-Joo, spokeswoman for the ministry, which handles cross-border contacts. "It's not time to hold such talks as proposed by North Korea."