Asia-Pacific News
North Korea sets conditions for dialogue with South
Feb 2, 2012, 13:55 GMT
Seoul - North Korea issued a set of conditions Thursday for dialogue with South Korea, in response to demands that the two countries improve relations.
The National Defence Commission, Pyongyang's most powerful decision-making body, issued a catalogue of 'open questions,' including demands that Seoul end its joint military manoeuvres with the United States and scrap a law punishing unauthorized contact with North Korea.
Observers speculated that this symbolic step was aimed at blaming Seoul for worsening relations between the neighbours. The list of demands, published by state media, includes old and recent demands that South Korea deems unacceptable.
The National Defence Commission was cited as saying that Seoul should 'respond to the open questions, as it is talking loudly about the resumption of dialogue between North and South and an improvement of relations.'
Seoul was also indirectly told to stop blaming North Korea for two military incidences in 2010.
At the time, tensions reached a high point with the sinking of a South Korean warship, which Seoul blamed on Pyongyang, and North Korea's artillery bombardment of a South Korean border island.
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