South Korea's president said on Monday that he wants to achieve ``genuine'' reconciliation with North Korea through dialogue and renewed his offer of a package of incentives for the North's nuclear disarmament.
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The North has recently reached out to Seoul and Washington following months of tension over its nuclear and missile programme. A U.S. State Department spokesman said on Friday that the North could rejoin international nuclear disarmament talks in coming weeks.
``For genuine reconciliation and cooperation ... South and North Korea must resolve many pending issues through a dialogue,'' President Lee Myung-bak said in a nationally televised address marking Korea's 1919 uprising against Japanese colonial rule.
North Korea ``must discuss with sincerity the 'grand bargain' deal that we have offered,'' Mr Lee said.
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Mr Lee's ``grand bargain'' would provide the North with a set of political incentives and economic aid in exchange for the irreversible dismantling of its nuclear weapons programme in a single step, rather than the step-by-step process pursued in the past. The single-step process is aimed at preventing North Korea from backtracking on its commitments after receiving the aid.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters on Friday that the United States was encouraged by signs that North Korea might return to international talks aimed at ending the North's nuclear programme in return for aid. The countries participating in the talks are North Korea, the U.S., Russia, China, Japan and South
Korea.
Her spokesman, P.J. Crowley, later said the talks could begin ``in coming weeks or months.''
North Korea quit the talks and conducted a second atomic test last year, inviting tighter U.N. sanctions. The regime has called for a lifting of the sanctions and peace talks formally ending the 1950-53 Korean War before it returns to the disarmament talks. The U.S., South Korea and Japan have responded the North must first return to the negotiations and produce progress.