Seoul's unification Minister reaffirmed on Monday his commitment to dialogue with North Korea as his ministry marked the 40th anniversary of its founding amid brittle relations with the North and mounting border tension.
Inter-Korean relations shuddered to a halt after conservative President Lee Myung-bak took office a year ago, adopting a tough stance on Pyongyang's nuclear program and ending his liberal predecessors' policy of providing aid to boost cross-border exchanges.
"We will engage in dialogue with North Korea and through dialogue find a new hope and a future that are beneficial for both Koreas," Hyun said in a speech marking the founding anniversary of the Ministry of Unification.
Pyongyang cut off official talks with Seoul, which suspended decade-long rice and fertilizer aid to Pyongyang for the first time last year. In recent weeks, North Korea declared all inter-Korean accords void and said it was preparing to launch a satellite, believed by neighbouring nations to be a long-range missile.
Lee has tacitly indicated he won't shift his stance toward the North, appointing Hyun In-taek, a hawkish pro-U.S. scholar, as the new unification Minister in January. The appointment brought further criticism from Pyongyang.
"South and North Korea should honour existing inter-Korean accords," Hyun said, "We sincerely intend to cooperate with the North and help the North to develop."
North Korea has rebuffed Seoul's repeated offers of dialogue as "wordplay," saying the Lee government does not respect the two previous summit agreements reached in 2000 and 2007.
The Lee government has said it supports the "spirit" of the summit accords but that it will be difficult to implement them in full, which it estimates will cost Seoul more than 14 trillion won (US$8.8 billion).
Pyongyang renewed its harsh rhetoric against Lee on the Ministry's anniversary.
"The traitor Lee Myung-bak, as soon as taking the seat of power, completely denied the (summit) agreements and poured out reckless onfrontational remarks," the North's state-run Radio Pyongyang said.
"If Lee Myung-bak truly wants inter-Korean dialogue, he first should kneel down to the Korean people and apologize for the manoeuvers of confrontation, war and division he has carried out so far," it said. Otherwise, Lee will face "the blow of a more horrendous iron hammer and shameful destruction," it warned.
On Sunday when South Korea commemorated the March 1, 1919 independence movement against Japanese colonial rule, President Lee urged Pyongyang come forward to the dialogue table and give up its nuclear weapons programme, saying such moves are a "shortcut" to its economic growth.
The past year of damaged relations stoked concerns in South Korea that the conservative government may be regressing in inter-Korean relations by ignoring the unique nature of secretive, communist North Korea.
Song Han-ho, who served as the ministry's vice minister from 1988 to 1992, said Seoul should maintain its low-key, calm approach toward Pyongyang as long as North Korea holds onto its nuclear weapons programme.
"We don't need to be preoccupied with dialogue with North Korea if it has no merit," Song said, "North Korea has not yet shown its respect for the Lee Myung-bak government."
The Ministry of Unification was first established as the National Unification Board during the Park Chung-hee government in 1969 to orchestrate inter-Korean dialogue and examine North Korean affairs. It was elevated to its current Cabinet-level status by President Kim Dae-jung in 1998.