South Korea urges North Korea to accept offer of high-level talks

South Korea urged North Korea Thursday to accept its offer of high-level talks first as Pyongyang called for Seoul to roll back a set of sanctions and cancel a joint military exercise with the United States.

“If North Korea indeed wants improved South-North relations and reunification, it will have to show a constructive attitude to resolve pending issues through dialogue by accepting our dialogue offer,” an official at the unification ministry told reporters.
The official said it’s Seoul’s official position on a statement issued by the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea earlier in the day, according to (Yonhap) news agency.
The North’s agency, which handles daily inter-Korean relations, urged Seoul to remove the so-called May 24th Measure imposed on Pyongyang for its deadly torpedo attack on a South Korean warship in 2010.
“The South Korean authorities should remove as soon as possible unreasonable institutional mechanisms blocking the contact, visits, cooperation and exchange between the north and the south,” it said in the English-language statement carried by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
The Committee reiterated calls for the South to call off its annual joint military training with the US to start next week. The North argues that the Ulchi Freedom Guardian is yet another rehearsal for invasion of the communist country.
On Monday, South Korea proposed that high-level talks take place next week on the reunions of aging family members separated by the 1950-53 Korean War and other issues of mutual concern.