World News Today: Kim Jong-il 'opposed succession'

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Kim Jong-il 'opposed succession'

US Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg (C) talks to the media after meeting with South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-Hwan at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul on January 26, 2011.

The US supports a resumption of North-South talks as a preliminary to six-nation nuclear talks

South Korea has rejected a North Korean proposal for parliamentary talks, insisting on the military talks it agreed to last week.

Seoul said the latest offer from Pyongyang "lacked sincerity".

However, a report in South Korean media suggests the South has dropped its demand for an apology from the North.

The JoongAng Daily reported that talks on the North's nuclear programme were separate from the "provocations" that require an apology.

South Korea had demanded an apology from the North for last year's attacks on a Southern warship and island before nuclear talks could resume.

North Korea's Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland called for the South to discard "useless misgivings and prejudice".

It said legislators from both sides of the border should talk about how "to settle the grave situation prevailing between the North and the South".

But South Korea remained unmoved.

"We are currently discussing opening military talks and have proposed separate talks to confirm the North's willingness to denuclearise," said unification ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung.

"It is our judgment that the North's continuing this kind of offensive under such circumstances is not behaviour that shows sincerity."

The South agreed to the high-level military talks with the North after months of tension on the peninsula and has proposed a preliminary meeting on 11 February.

The South's JoongAng Daily quoted a senior government source as saying that the South had effectively dropped its demand for an apology from the North for the sinking of the Cheonan warship last March that killed 46 sailors and the shelling of Yeonpyeong island in November.

"Although the Cheonan sinking and the Yeonpyeong island shelling are both issues close to our hearts, denuclearisation is a much more important issue at hand here," the unnamed source said.

Pyongyang denies torpedoing the Cheonan and says it was provoked into shelling Yeonpyeong.

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