hankyoreh

South Korea will continue to improve its ties with North Korea despite the delayed shutdown of the North's nuclear reactor and any other obstacles that may be created along the way, Seoul's point man on the communist nation said Friday.

"I believe we cannot give up South-North relations under any circumstances and that we must never stop trying to create alternative solutions" to difficulties, Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung told a regular press briefing.

The remarks came shortly after Washington's top envoy to Seoul, Alexander Vershbow, said inter-Korean relations must keep pace with progress in international talks on ending North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

Speaking early Friday at a meeting of a pro-unification civic organization, the Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation, the U.S. ambassador also said it was important for Seoul to send Pyongyang the same message as the one being channeled to the reclusive nation through the six-nation nuclear talks.

The unification minister declined to comment on Vershbow's remarks, but said his country has worked in principle to keep progress in inter-Korean relations in pace with that of the nuclear disarmament talks.

"And there will be no changes to this principle," he said.

Inter-Korean ties thawed quickly after Pyongyang agreed to shut down and seal its key nuclear facilities, including its only operational nuclear reactor, at Yongbyon in a six-party agreement signed on Feb. 13.

North Korea has yet to implement the agreement, under which it was supposed to take initial measures within 60 days or by April 14. The communist nation also walked out of a March round of the nuclear talks in Beijing, insisting it will not discuss the nuclear issue until its funds frozen at a bank in Macau are released.

The US$25 million of North Korean funds at Banco Delta Asia have been available for withdrawal since April 10, but the North has yet to recover the money due to what South Korean and U.S. nuclear negotiators called "technical issues."

Chun Yung-woo, South Korea's chief nuclear envoy, said last week that a "key to resolving the banking issue" would soon become visible.

South Korea is hoping to test two cross-border railways with North Korea for the first time since at least the end of 1950-53 Korean War.

The divided Koreas are to hold high-level military talks next week to discuss security guarantees for the temporary opening of the heavily-fortified inter-Korean border for the tests scheduled for May 17.

The countries have been holding working-level economic dialogue at the North's border town of Kaesong to discuss Seoul's US$80-million assistance for North Korea's light industries, an incentive to be provided if the railway tests are conducted as agreed.

Seoul and Pyongyang had similar arrangements to test the railways in the past, but they were never conducted due to opposition from the North's military, which feared possible exposure of its key military installations along the tracks.

Seoul, May 4 (Yonhap News)