North Korea pressed South Korea Wednesday to resume inter-Korean dialogue after suspending joint military exercises with the United States, Yonhap news agency cited Seoul's Unification Ministry as saying.
On Tuesday, the North's communist regime, its political party and concerned organizations held a joint meeting "to carry out the tasks for national reunification set forth by Marshal Kim Jong-un in his New Year address," its state media, Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), reported.
After the meeting, the participants adopted "an appeal" for a resumption of cross-border dialogue, saying that North Korea "is ready to have a candid discussion on all the problems arising in mending inter-Korean relations and boldly settle them."
The appeal, however, included the North's long-standing demand for a halt to joint South Korea-U.S. military exercises and to the leaflet campaign being waged by anti-Pyongyang activists in South Korea, according said the KCNA report, monitored in Seoul.
The North's appeal was addressed on Wednesday to the presidential office, the speaker of National Assembly, the ruling Saenuri Party, the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy and the (South) Korean Red Cross, the ministry said in a brief news release.
The move is the latest in a series of peace overtures from the North, though Pyongyang has continued to remain silent on Seoul's dialogue offer.