South Korea is prepared to roll back a set of sanctions on North Korea if conditions are met through dialogue, a top official here said Friday.
Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae said he government has already completed a relevant "study."
"Once talks are held between the South and the North, I believe it can serve as a chance for lifting the May 24th Measure," he said at a forum in Seoul.
His remarks indicated the Park Geun-hye administration's flexibility on the sanctions imposed by the previous government of Lee Myung-bak.
The May 24th Measure is a key punishment against the communist nation for its 2010 torpedo attack on a South Korean naval ship, the Cheonan, which killed 46 sailors.
It has effectively suspended all inter-Korean economic cooperation except for the Kaesong Industrial Complex.
The South wants the North to take responsible measures with regard to the Cheonan incident, while Pyongyang calls for the lifting of the sanctions as a precondition for reuniting families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.
The minister, however, admitted that the government will come under growing pressure to ease or remove the May 24th Measure if the South's trilateral logistics project with North Korea and Russia moves forward.
The South aims to sign a formal contract on the so-called Rajin-Khasan project, in which the South's top steelmaker, POSCO, will bring in Russian coal via the North's port of Rajin.
The government, Ryoo said, plans to allow social, cultural, religious and sports exchanges with the North as much as possible this year, the 70th anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japan's 35-year-long colonial rule.
The minister's comments came amid the North's refusal to accept the South's repeated offer of high-level dialogue.
Meanwhile, Ryoo criticized former president Lee Myung-bak over his revelation of secrets behind inter-Korean relations during his 2008-2013 presidency.
Lee said in his memoir that the North demanded vast economic compensation for holding summit talks.
He also disclosed some other sensitive information including unannounced visits to each other's capital by senior intelligence officials.
"(He) should not have revealed matters in that manner. I don't think it's appropriate to say everything (he) knows," Ryoo said.
He also took a jab at Lee for his aborted scheme to scrap the unification ministry, which specializes in inter-Korean affairs, in 2008.
It is unusual for a sitting South Korean minister to openly condemn the country's former president. (Yonhap)
