Seoul says inter-Korean dialogue must include nuclear issue

After issuing a New Year's message on January 1 calling for better cross-border relations, Pyongyang has since made back-to-back proposals through different organisations for inter-Korean dialogue to ease tensions.

On Saturday, the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea released a statement urging "unconditional and early opening" of talks between Seoul and Pyongyang. It was the first such initiative issued by the committee in nearly 20 years, officials in Seoul said. In May last year, the same committee had declared that there will be no talks with Seoul until South Korean President Lee Myung-bak leaves office.

"Putting the nuclear issue to inter-Korean discussion is something that has been under constant review by the government," a senior official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"To stop the North's nuclear development, the issue has to be discussed between the two Koreas." Seoul has been offish to Pyongyang's overtures, seeing them as more of a strategy to put the blame on the South for absence of dialogue. Officials here are also wary of the North's repetitive tactic of stoking tension on the Korean Peninsula before coming to talks with raised stakes and demand for concessions.

Talks with the communist regime gained urgency in recent months after the North disclosed to visiting US scientists what it claimed were uranium enrichment facilities that, when operated successfully, could produce material for nuclear weapons.

Just weeks after the disclosure, the North bombarded a South Korean border island, killing four people, including two civilians.