Seoul still eyes dialogue with pyongyang

Republic of Korea President Park Geunhye said on Tuesday that her government will continue efforts for dialogue with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and promised to actively prepare for future reunification of the two neighbors beginning next year.

"The government will continue efforts for dialogue in terms of inter-Korean relations, with a sincere and broadly open mind and in accordance with principle," Park said during a Cabinet meeting.

Park pledged to actively build preparations for reunification beginning next year, saying Seoul will prepare to provide real assistance for people in the DPRK.

Park has advocated reunification as a "bonanza" for the Korean Peninsula and the region as well as the world.

Seoul said on Monday in its 2015 economic policy direction summary that to prepare for the reunification era, it would push for aggressive exchanges and cooperation with the DPRK if inter-Korean relations improve.

As part of those efforts, the ROK will push to hold a general meeting of the Greater Tumen Initiative next year in Seoul to help the DPRK develop utilities and infrastructure.

Created in 1995, the GTI is an intergovernmental cooperation mechanism in Northeast Asia supported by the UN Development Program. Its four members are the ROK, China, Russia and Mongolia. The DPRK took its name off the GTI in November 2009.

DPRK-Russia rail

Seoul plans to go ahead with the tripartite transportation project, which uses the DPRK-Russia railway and port.

The test run was conducted earlier this month by transporting about 40,000 metric tons of coal from the Russian border city of Khasan to the DPRK's port city of Rajin via the 54-km railway before moving it by sea route to Pohang, the ROK's southern port city.

Medical services and nutritional food assistance would also be provided for female DPRK workers and their babies in the Kaesong industrial complex.

Those would be part of the so-called Dresden Declaration, a three-point proposal made by ROK President Park during her visit to Germany in March that envisages reunification of Korea on the same basis as the reunification of Germany in 1990. It includes assistance to pregnant women, mothers and babies in the DPRK.

Xinhua

(China Daily 12/24/2014 page12)