"I believe we cannot give up on South-North relations under any circumstances and that we must never stop trying to find alternative solutions" to any difficulties, South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted Lee Jae-joung as saying.
Bilateral relations between the two Koreas were disrupted after Pyongyang conducted missile tests on July 5, 2006. Dialogue was resumed when North Korea agreed to stop its nuclear reactor and give IAEA inspectors access to the country in a six-party agreement on February 13.
However, the communist nation has insisted that it will not start denuclearization until its funds frozen at Banco Delta Asia in Macao are released.
Washington had the account blocked in September 2005 after accusing Pyongyang of money laundering and counterfeiting U.S. dollars, but it backed down on its decision earlier this year in an attempt to break the deadlock in the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear ambitions.
The six-party talks, held intermittently since 2003, involve the two Koreas, China, Japan, the U.S. and Russia.
Seoul made it clear that it will be ready to cooperate with North Korea, and will supply 400,000 metric tons of rice to North Korea late in May. South Korea also said it will boost economic cooperation and test two cross border railways with North Korea for the first time since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, the agency said. Moreover, South Korea said as soon as its northern neighbor makes the first steps to implement the February agreement, it will deliver the first 50,000 metric tons of fuel oil to North Korea.
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. North and South Koreas unified their railways on June 14, 2003 on two sections of a 4 kilometer demilitarization zone, which divides the peninsula along the 38th parallel. Seoul and Pyongyang were to test the railways last May, but the arrangements were never conducted due to opposition from the North's military.
