South Korean President Park willing to meet with Kim Jong-un 'without preconditions'
South Korean president says 'there are no preconditions', including nuclear disarmament, to holding talks with the North Korean leader
South Korean President Park Geun-hye said she is willing to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un without preconditions, and the country's nuclear weapons programme wouldn't be an obstacle to holding the first Korean summit since 2007.
"There are no preconditions", including nuclear disarmament, for a summit between the two countries, Park said yesterday at a televised news conference, warning Kim that he should drop his nuclear pursuit in order to achieve an eventual unification.
South Korea's Park says she's open to summit with North Korea leader Kim Jong-un
Park also said she was open to a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe but that an environment should be created to make the summit "successful and meaningful".
Abe and Park have yet to hold a formal one-on-one summit meeting since the two leaders took office, Abe in 2012 and Park in 2013, due to strained bilateral ties over a territorial dispute and disagreements stemming from Japan's wartime actions.
Park meanwhile urged North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to agree to resume the reunions of families that remain separated more than 60 years after the end of the civil war that left the peninsula divided.
Relations on the Korean peninsula have been complicated by North Korea's push to develop nuclear weapons and its threats to use them against the South. In recent months there have been some signs of easing tensions. In October, North Korea sent three members of Kim's inner circle to meet with Park's chief security adviser. That led to the first talks between their military generals since 2007.
"Park tried not to anger the North, refraining from mentioning its human rights problems and poor living conditions or criticising the regime directly," said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.
"At the same time, she isn't offering a fresh alternative that could allow the South to take the lead in improving relations."
North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency said on Saturday that the country could suspend further nuclear tests if the United States stopped joint military exercises in South Korea.
US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki called the offer "inappropriate", saying that another test would be a violation of the North's obligations under UN Security Council resolutions and a 2005 agreement as part of six-nation disarmament talks.
South Korea has previously said the North must end its pursuit of nuclear arms and acknowledge it attacked the South's Cheonan warship that sank in 2010, among other concessions, before it can resume large-scale economic assistance seen under former President Roh Moo-hyun. Roh participated in the last summit when he met Kim's father, Kim Jong-il, in Pyongyang in October 2007.
On South Korea's other problematic diplomatic front, Park held out hope for a meeting with Japan's Abe. Park has refused to meet separately with Abe until he does more to atone for Japan's wartime past and address the issue of "comfort women", the name given to those forced to serve in Japanese military brothels during the second world war. "There is no reason not to hold a summit [with Japan], but the summit must be meaningful and should achieve progress and also the summit should not cause [bilateral relations] to move backward," Park said.