South Korea plans ties with North | South Korea's president has proposed that North and South Korea

South Korea's president has proposed that North and South Korea each set up a liaison office in the other's capital to break the impasse in their strained relations and facilitate dialogue between the rival states, an official said.

President Lee Myung-bak's overture came days after North Korea said in its New Year's message that it was committed to improving ties with South Korea.

The positive messages from both sides suggest their relationship could move forward after two tension-filled years.

"We have to come up with a new turning point in the South-North relations," Mr Lee said in his televised New Year's address.

"I urge North Korea to return to stalled international nuclear disarmament talks to help open the floodgate in inter-Korean co-operation," he said.

Mr Lee proposed that the two Koreas establish a standing dialogue channel through which they can talk at any time.

He did not elaborate, but spokeswoman Kim Eun-hye said the suggestion was in line with Mr Lee's 2008 proposal that the sides set up liaison offices in Seoul and Pyongyang.

Mr Lee also said he would seek a joint project with the North to recover remains of South Korean soldiers believed buried across the heavily armed border after the 1950-53 Korean War.

North Korea had rejected the 2008 offer to set up liaison offices. But its reaction to the latest proposal could be different because the communist regime has significantly softened its hard-line stance towards Mr Lee and called for better ties with South Korea.

In its New Year's message on Friday, the North said its commitment to improved relations with Seoul remained "unshakeable".

Press Association

Posted in: World News