South Korea is ready to discuss the possible removal of its sanctions on North Korea if the rival countries hold talks, Seoul's prime minister said Thursday.
The remark by Prime Minister Lee Wan-koo was seen as reflecting Seoul's growing willingness to mend fences with North Korea as well as its continuing call on the communist country to return to the negotiating table.
Since the cross-border sanctions were imposed two months after the North's deadly torpedoing of the South Korean Navy corvette Cheonan in March 2010, the North has repeatedly demanded the removal of the punitive measures, denying responsibility for the military attack.
The so-called May 24 measures have taken a toll on the North, which was already sanctioned heavily by the United Nations and the United States. They severed virtually all inter-Korean transactions and exchanges except those involved in the inter-Korean joint project, the Kaesong Industrial Complex.
"We could review the issue of the May 24 measures in a positive way if there are North Korean steps that look plausible to South Korean people," Lee said in an interpellation session, alluding to the government's possible removal of the sanctions.
"Above all, I think the government is ready to discuss this issue in depth if there are genuine talks and reconciliation between South and North Korea.," the prime minister noted.
Earlier this month, Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae expressed a similar stance, saying in a local forum that "if South and North Korea hold talks it could become an opportunity to lift the May 24 sanctions."
Such an overture from Seoul came as the government is seeking to hold high-level talks with Pyongyang.
As strained relations with the North continued for years, the South proposed high-level talks with the North in late December and has frequently renewed its call on the North to accept the proposal.
The North has, however, neither accepted nor rejected the offer as the country continues to denounce the joint military exercises between South Korea and the U.S. set for March. (Yonhap)
