South Korea extends olive branch
Source: Agencies |
August 16, 2011, Tuesday
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SOUTH Korea's president yesterday called for cooperation with North Korea and pledged limited humanitarian support for its people as the two nations try to set aside animosity and pursue dialogue.
Lee Myung-bak's speech, celebrating the Korean peninsula's liberation from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule, followed tentative talks among officials from the US, North Korea and South Korea aimed at restarting international negotiations.
Lee, wearing traditional clothes, said Koreans long for reunification despite the peninsula's bitter history.
He said: "South and North Korea have lived in an age of confrontation for the last 60 years. Looking back on history, we fervently hope not to repeat the tragedy of war. Now we must leap beyond that age and live in an age of peace and cooperation."
Lee also said humanitarian support for North Korean children and victims of natural disasters will continue. North Korea has faced weeks of torrential rain, leading to widespread deaths and property loss.
Since taking office in 2008, Lee has halted large-scale food aid to North Korea pending progress on nuclear disarmament talks. But his conservative government has provided occasional aid to vulnerable children, pregnant women and disaster victims.
Korea was divided after the end of Japanese rule and technically remains in a state of war because the 1950s Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.
Despite the president's conciliatory tone and recent signs that nuclear talks might resume, tensions remain high.
US and South Korean forces are to begin joint military exercises this week, and South Korea says it exchanged artillery fire with the North last week along their disputed maritime border. North Korea claims the South overreacted to construction noise.
Last year was a bloody reminder of the animosity between the Koreas.
Seoul says a North Korean torpedo sank one of its warships in March, killing 46 sailors, and a North Korean artillery attack in November killed two civilians and two marines on a South Korean island.
Recent weeks have seen renewed diplomatic hope. A senior North Korean official last month met US counterparts in New York to negotiate ways to restart talks. That followed friendly talks between North and South envoys during a regional security forum in Indonesia.
Lee Myung-bak's speech, celebrating the Korean peninsula's liberation from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule, followed tentative talks among officials from the US, North Korea and South Korea aimed at restarting international negotiations.
Lee, wearing traditional clothes, said Koreans long for reunification despite the peninsula's bitter history.
He said: "South and North Korea have lived in an age of confrontation for the last 60 years. Looking back on history, we fervently hope not to repeat the tragedy of war. Now we must leap beyond that age and live in an age of peace and cooperation."
Lee also said humanitarian support for North Korean children and victims of natural disasters will continue. North Korea has faced weeks of torrential rain, leading to widespread deaths and property loss.
Since taking office in 2008, Lee has halted large-scale food aid to North Korea pending progress on nuclear disarmament talks. But his conservative government has provided occasional aid to vulnerable children, pregnant women and disaster victims.
Korea was divided after the end of Japanese rule and technically remains in a state of war because the 1950s Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.
Despite the president's conciliatory tone and recent signs that nuclear talks might resume, tensions remain high.
US and South Korean forces are to begin joint military exercises this week, and South Korea says it exchanged artillery fire with the North last week along their disputed maritime border. North Korea claims the South overreacted to construction noise.
Last year was a bloody reminder of the animosity between the Koreas.
Seoul says a North Korean torpedo sank one of its warships in March, killing 46 sailors, and a North Korean artillery attack in November killed two civilians and two marines on a South Korean island.
Recent weeks have seen renewed diplomatic hope. A senior North Korean official last month met US counterparts in New York to negotiate ways to restart talks. That followed friendly talks between North and South envoys during a regional security forum in Indonesia.
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