Any future inter-Korean dialogue should serve as a venue for North Korea to affirm its commitment to denuclearization, a senior South Korean official said Tuesday, dismissing the North's recent offers of dialogue as falsely motivated.
"North Korea's sincerity toward denuclearization should be confirmed in inter-Korean talks as well," Unification Minister Hyun In-taek told reporters on the sidelines of a public conference.
Hyun, South Korea's point man on the North, was critically referring to the communist neighbor's long-standing reluctance to discuss its nuclear programs with Seoul.
North Korea, which has conducted two nuclear tests, claims its development of atomic bombs is aimed at deterring a U.S. invasion and therefore must be negotiated with Washington.
Refusing to differentiate humanitarian from political talks, Hyun said the North should also make moves that show its penitence for the series of provocative acts blamed on it.
"North Korea should show its commitment and will toward denuclearization along with responsible measures over the string of provocations" that include the March 26 sinking of a South Korean warship and the Nov. 23 shelling of a South Korean island, he said.
North Korea denies sinking the Cheonan warship even though a multinational investigation in May found Pyongyang responsible for the tragedy; it admits to shelling the Yeonpyeong island, but claims the South first provoked it by firing shells at its side.
In a related development, the North repudiated a South Korean view that Pyongyang is not being sincere about its push for dialogue, insisting that both sides sit down first to test each other's resolve to iron out differences through talks.
The argument by Minju Joson, the North's Cabinet paper, came a day after South Korea dismissed Pyongyang's proposal for talks as an appeal for aid and demanded that any future dialogue deal with North Korea's nuclear development and armed attacks on the South.