Korean liaison idea warms peace hopes

In his nationally televised new year's address, staunch US ally President Lee Myung Bak said: "We have to come up with a new turning point in the South-North relations - I urge North Korea to return to international nuclear disarmament talks to help open the floodgate in inter-Korean co-operation."

Mr Lee proposed that the two Koreas establish a standing dialogue channel through which they can talk at any time.

He did not elaborate, but spokeswoman Kim Eun Hye said that the suggestion was in line with Mr Lee's 2008 proposal that the sides set up liaison offices in Seoul and Pyongyang.

In its new year's message on Friday, Pyongyang affirmed that its commitment to improved relations with Seoul remained "unshakeable."

"The fundamental task for ensuring peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and in the rest of Asia is to put an end to the hostile relationship between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the USA," the official news agency KCNA said in a report.

"It is the consistent stand of the DPRK to establish a lasting peace system on the Korean peninsula and make it nuclear-free through dialogue and negotiations," it continued.

The 1950-53 Korean war ended with a ceasefire because the US refused - and continues to refuse - to ink a formal peace treaty with Pyongyang.

Washington has also rebuffed repeated efforts by Pyongyang to hammer out a mutual non-agression pact.

The latest positive messages from both sides suggest that inter-Korean relations may be warming after two tension-filled years.

The Tokyo-based Choson Sinbo newspaper, which is sympathetic to the DPRK government, opined at the weekend that Pyongyang's message suggested that there could be a "dramatic event" between the two Koreas in 2010.

This led South Korean media to speculate that there could be a summit this year between Mr Lee and DPRK leader Kim Jong Il.

Local news reports have said the two sides held a series of secret meetings last year to discuss a possible summit, but failed to reach agreement because they were wide apart over conditions for such a meeting.