Wendie Tomsic blog

N. Korea in fresh call for talks with S. Korea

SEOUL (AFP) – North Korea has made a fresh call for talks with South Korea to discuss ways to ease tensions, its official news agency reported Friday.

A group called the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland sought dialogue between legislators from both sides "to seek ways to move forward together as a people while overcoming the grave situation between North and South Korea", it said.

The two sides on February 11 are expected to have their first contact -- a military meeting -- since the North shelled a South Korean island on November 23, killing four people including two civilians.

Tensions have been high for almost a year, after Seoul accused its neighbour of torpedoing a warship last March with the loss of 46 lives. The North denies the ship attack.

After months of fiery rhetoric, Pyongyang changed tack this year and has made frequent appeals for dialogue.

The Front, which is dominated by the North's ruling communist party, selects candidates for the rubber-stamp legislature known as the Supreme People's Assembly.

The working-level meeting expected to be held on February 11 is designed to set the time and agenda for high-level military dialogue.

But the South says it will demand that the North take "responsible measures" over last year's attacks and pledge not to repeat them as a precondition for any high-level meeting.