By
The Associated Press
SEOUL, South Korea - Top South Korean security officials yesterday asked the United States to reopen dialogue with North Korea, South Korean officials said.
Foreign Minister Han Seung-soo and Defense Minister Kim Dong-shin met yesterday with Evans Revere, charge d'affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, and U.S. Forces Korea Commander Gen. Thomas Schwartz.
"During the meeting, we relayed our hope that the United States will resume dialogue with North Korea as soon as possible after reviewing its policy on the North," said Kim Euy-taek, a spokesman at the Foreign Ministry.
Also yesterday, President Kim Dae-jung said he believed that North Korea will soon resume dialogue not only with South Korea but also with the United States.
"There is no alternative to dialogue, which is beneficial to each other," said the president during a speech in Seoul.
South Korean officials are concerned that the absence of dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang could hurt Seoul's efforts to reconcile with the North.
Inter-Korea exchanges flourished last year after their leaders met for the first time and agreed to promote reconciliation and unification. But the reconciliation process came to a virtual standstill after President Bush took a harder stance on North Korea and ruled out an early resumption of dialogue with the totalitarian country.
The Korean Peninsula was divided into the communist North and pro-Western South in 1945. The 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty, and the border remains sealed.
About 37,000 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea under a defense treaty.
