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Seoul urges Pyongyang commit to denuclearisation
October 14, 2013, 6:17 am

Some 53,000 North Korean workers began to return to Kaesong on September 16 [Xinhua]

Some 53,000 North Korean workers began to return to Kaesong on September 16 [Xinhua]

The South Korean Foreign Ministry says six-party talks involving its northern neighbour can be restarted once Pyongyang demonstrates its commitment to nuclear non-proliferation.

“The timing of resuming six-party talks depends on North Korea (DPRK),” the ministry said in a report to lawmakers on Monday.

The ministry’s report appears to come three weeks after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his South Korean counterpart Yun Byung-se on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly that Beijing is ready to work with Seoul to build consensus and facilitate six-party talks on denuclearisation on the peninsula.

Yi said that China supports Seoul’s trust-building measures and hopes for better North-South relations through dialogue.

In early September, the two Koreas reached an agreement to fully reopen the Kaesong industrial complex, which was shut down in April after tensions between Pyongyang, Seoul and Washington peaked over the former’s launching of upgraded missiles and the latter holding joint military exercises.

But the South Korean Foreign Ministry report says “dialogue for the sake of dialogue will only be abused by the North to buy time to advance its nuclear weapons”.

The six-way talks including the two Koreas, China, the United States, Russia and Japan, have been stalled since Pyongyang refused to honour an earlier agreement to dismantle its nuclear programme by 2008. North Korea conducted its third nuclear test in February and test-fired a long-range rocket last December.

Source: Agencies