South Korea said Friday it will make efforts to win the release of South Korean detainees in North Korea in the process of making an improvement in inter-Korean ties.

Currently, six South Koreans, including three pastors, are being detained in North Korea on charges of committing what the North called anti-North Korea crimes.

"The government will make active efforts to resolve such humanitarian issues in the process of an advancement in South-North Korean relations, including on the occasion of inter-Korean dialogue," Baik Tae-hyun, spokesman at Seoul's unification ministry, told a press briefing.

He stressed that Seoul has been pumping up diplomatic efforts to resolve this matter through cooperation with the international community.

Baik declined to clarify whether the issue can be discussed at the upcoming summit between President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un slated for April 27.

The three South Korean pastors -- Kim Jung-wook, Kim Kuk-gi and Choe Chun-gil -- were sentenced to hard labor for life on charges of spying for South Korea's spy agency. The other three detainees are North Korean defectors.

North Korea has selectively permitted consular access to foreigners detained in the North, but it has not allowed it to the South Korean detainees as the two Koreas do not recognize each other as sovereign states, the ministry said. (Yonhap)