South Korea said Tuesday that it does not see a big difference with the United States in understanding that the right conditions for full-fledged talks with North Korea have not been met due to its nuclear and missile aspirations.
Seoul's reaction came amid speculation that the US may be uncomfortable with Seoul's latest offer for inter-Korean dialogue at a time when it is pressing tougher sanctions over North Korea's test of an intercontinental ballistic missile.
The White House said Monday that current conditions are "far away" from those needed to reopen dialogue with North Korea as South Korea proposed inter-Korean military and family reunion talks.
This file photo dated Aug. 25, 2015, shows South Korean National Security Adviser Kim Kwan-jin (R) and Hwang Pyong-so, the North Korean military`s top political officer, shaking hands after completing inter-Korean high-level talks at the truce village of Panmunjom inside the Demilitarized Zone. On July 17, 2017. (Yonhap)
But Seoul's Unification Ministry said that the government has fully explained its dialogue offer to the US via diplomatic channels, adding that there is no gap in assessing conditions for talks aimed at North Korea's denuclearization.
"The government's dialogue offer does not mean that conditions for full-fledged dialogue have been met," said a ministry official.
"The latest proposal is an attempt for 'the early stage' of talks," he added.
South Korea on Monday offered to hold inter-Korean military talks on Friday to ease tensions along the tense border and Red Cross talks on Aug. 1 to resume reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.
Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon said that though the right conditions for talks with Pyongyang have not been drawn up, the South made such a proposal to ease military tensions and resolve the urgent issue of separated families.
"This can be seen as measures at an embryonic stage to defuse tensions and bring peace to the peninsula," the minister told reporters on Monday.
South Korea's neighboring countries showed mixed reactions to Seoul's dialogue offer. China welcomed it, saying that the move will help ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula. But Japan said that it is not a time to seek dialogue, but to employ sanctions on the North. (Yonhap)