South Korea's president urged rival North Korea on Monday to use the transition of leadership after Kim Jong-il's death as a "turning point" to usher in a new era of peace on the tense Korean peninsula.
Lee Myung-bak said the Korean peninsula is at a turning point Photo: AFP/GETTY
The Telegraph
7:13PM GMT 02 Jan 2012
Lee Myung-bak reached out in his New Year's message to the North Korean government now led by Kim's son, Kim Jong-un, saying he has high hopes for a breakthrough this year in negotiations over the North's nuclear programme.
However, Mr Lee warned that Seoul would respond sternly to any North Korean provocations. Relations between the rival Koreas dropped to their lowest point in decades following the 2010 sinking of a South Korean warship that killed 46 sailors and North Korea's deadly shelling of a front-line island later that year.
Mr Lee's comments in a nationally televised speech came a day after the North called on its citizens to rally around Kim Jong-un and transform themselves into his "human shields".
Mr Lee said Kim Jong-il's death is "portending a sea change" for the fractured Korean peninsula. "If North Korea comes forward with a sincere attitude, it will be possible for us to work together to open a new era," he said.
The Korean peninsula remains in a technical state of conflict because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. North and South remain divided by a heavily fortified border, and their navies have traded deadly fire at their disputed maritime border over the years.
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After a decade of warming ties, relations plummeted in 2008 after Mr Lee took office with a firm policy of linking aid to the impoverished North to its commitment to dismantle its nuclear programme. Most joint business ventures and other civilian, humanitarian and cultural exchanges were suspended.
Mr Lee said the Korean peninsula is at a turning point with Kim's death, and "new opportunities always emerge amid such changes."
His speech shows South Korea "has no intention" of provoking North Korea, said Cheon Seong-whun, an analyst with the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul.
On Monday, state media accused Mr Lee of plotting to shake up the North by temporarily placing his troops on high alert after Kim Jong-il's death. The North's Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in an editorial that Mr Lee must "kneel down and apologise" for his acts.
However, in one of his first roles as North Korea's leader, the young Kim met briefly in Pyongyang last week with a former South Korean first lady who was leading private mourning delegations paying respects to Kim Jong-il – a clear sign he is open to reaching out again to the South Koreans.
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