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2nd LD Writethru: S.Korean president says she can hold summit with DPRK if it helps

Xinhua, January 12, 2015 Adjust font size:

South Korean President Park Geun-hye said Monday that she can hold a summit with Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), if it promotes inter-Korean relations.

"If necessary, I can meet with everybody. The inter-Korean summit, I can do that if it helps," Park said in her New Year's press conference at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae.

Park said there is no precondition for an inter-Korean dialogue, but she said it would be mandatory for the DPRK to have an open- minded and sincere attitude toward resolving issues through a dialogue.

"Without coming to a settlement on denuclearization" on the Korean Peninsula, the two Koreas cannot talk about the peaceful unification, Park said, adding that the issue should be resolved through inter-Korean or multilateral dialogue channels.

The DPRK's official KCNA news agency said Saturday that it had told the United States that it would temporarily suspend nuclear tests if Washington temporarily suspends its joint annual military exercises with Seoul this year.

Top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un said in his New Year's address on Jan. 1 that there is "no reason not to hold the highest-level talks" with South Korea if a right atmosphere and environment is formed.

Park urged the DPRK to actively respond to Seoul's dialogue offer "without any hesitation," saying that the two Koreas should open a door of unification together by discussing issues, especially the "fundamental resolution" of Korean families separated during the 1950-53 Korean War.

Given the old age of those separated families, the reunion issue can not be delayed, Park said, asking the DPRK to be open- minded in talking about the holding of the reunion event around the Lunar New Year's holiday that falls in mid-February this year.

South Korean Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae offered last month to hold a high-level dialogue with the DPRK in January. The latest round of senior-level contact was held in February 2014, resulting in reunion of the separated families. Endi