South Korean minister urges North to accept talks offer

South Korea's Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae called on North Korea Tuesday to accept its offer of ministerial talks, Yonhap News Agency reported.
"We hope that North Korea will accept our will (for dialogue) regardless of the framework and format of dialogue," Ryoo was quoted as saying when he presided over a meeting of the Presidential Committee for Unification Preparation.
The government-civilian panel proposed minister-level talks with North Korea on Monday aimed at discussing pending inter-Korean issues, including the reunion of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.
Ryoo stressed that Seoul's proposal represents its seriousness about dialogue with its neighbor as Korea marks the 70th anniversary of liberation from Japan's 35-year colonial rule.
The minister also said the government will endeavor to bear fruit in inter-Korean relations in 2015. If realized, it will be the first minister-level meeting between the two Koreas since May 2007, but Pyongyang remained silent on Seoul's new offer, while its state-run media continued to criticize the presidential committee.
The North's main newspaper Rodong Sinmun claimed the panel is an agency intended to facilitate Seoul's confrontation with Pyongyang.
The Koreas remain technically at war after the Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.