S. Korea seeks talks with North to fix ties

[December 22, 2008]  SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- South Korean media reported Monday that Seoul is seeking secret contacts with the North to defuse escalating tensions on the peninsula. But officials in the South denied they were pursuing such talks.

The Yonhap news agency said the two Koreas have held secret talks and Pyongyang expressed a strong willingness to improve ties, which have sunk to their lowest point in years.

During the meeting, the North proposed a deal to repatriate some South Koreans -- either taken prisoner during the peninsula's 1950-53 war or abducted after the conflict ended -- in return for Seoul's resuming economic aid to its impoverished neighbor, Yonhap said.

The Chosun Ilbo reported that South Korea had merely been in contact with Pyongyang through unspecified channels to propose meeting behind the scenes.

But the South Korean Unification Ministry denied both of the reports, saying Seoul is not seeking secret talks with Pyongyang.

The South has publicly offered to talk with the North many times, but Pyongyang has rejected the overtures as "insincere."

The North's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper repeated that stance Monday, calling the offers "hypocritical" and accusing the South of seeking confrontation.

Relations between the two Koreas have soured rapidly since South Korean President Lee Myung-bak took office in February with a pledge to get tough on Pyongyang.

In response, the North suspended reconciliation talks and took other angry steps to raise tensions, including halting two landmark joint projects -- cross-border train service and a tourism program -- and reducing the number of South Koreans allowed access to a joint industrial park.

As tensions rose this year, rumors emerged that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il suffered a stroke in August. The 66-year-old Kim rules the isolated, nuclear-armed country with an iron grip and has not publicly named a successor.

But more recently, Kim's health appears to have improved. On Monday, Chosun reported that the leader's personal armored train had started moving again -- provided the latest indication the he was on the mend.

South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities confirmed the train's movement through images from spy satellites and surveillance planes, Chosun Ilbo said, citing unidentified South Korean officials.

Kim's train had reportedly been sitting idle for months since he fell ill.

The paper also said Kim appears to have been discharged from a hospital between early and mid-October and has started using the train again to travel around the country.

South Korea's Unification Ministry declined to confirm the report, citing intelligence matters. The National Intelligence Service, Seoul's main spy agency, only said that Kim "mainly uses his personal train when traveling long distances."

[Associated Press; By JAE-SOON CHANG]

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