North Korea ready for high-level talks with South

Baku. 2 January. REPORT.AZ/ North Korean leader Kim Jong-un says he is ready for the “highest-level” of talks with neighboring South Korea, days after Seoul proposed such negotiations between the two sides, Report informs citing the foreign media.

Kim made the remarks during his traditional New Year message on Thursday. “Depending on the mood and circumstances to be created, we have no reason not to hold the highest-level talks,” the North Korean leader said. “We will make every effort to advance dialogue and negotiations”, he said.

Kim further called for a “big change” to mend the strained ties between the two Koreas.

On December 29, 2014, South Korea’s Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae offered the high-level talks with the North to discuss issues of “mutual concern.”

Back in 2007, South Korea’s late President Roh Moo-hyun and the North’s late leader Kim Jong-il held a summit.

The two Koreas last held high-level negotiations in February. Those talks resulted in a reunion of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War. The two Koreas had earlier agreed to restart dialogue when a top-ranking North Korean delegation made a surprise visit to the Asian Games held in South Korea in October 2014.

The Korean Peninsula has been locked in a cycle of escalating military rhetoric since the Korean War. No peace deal has been signed since then, meaning that the two Koreas remain technically at war.