SEOUL, Jan. 28 (UPI) -- South Korean leaders Wednesday welcomed North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's reported commitment to a denuclearized Korean Peninsula.
As a result, Seoul moved to restrict an anti-North propaganda effort in South Korea as inter-Korean relations remain chilled, the South Korean Yonhap News Agency reported.
During a meeting with visiting Chinese officials last week, Kim said he did not want to increase tensions in the Korean Peninsula, saying he hoped to work with China to advance nuclear negotiations, Chinese state media reported.
The North Korean leader was quoted by China's state-run Xinhua news agency as saying, "The North Korean side will commit itself to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and hopes to co-exist peacefully with other involved parties."
"If these remarks are true, we view them positively," Kim Ho-nyoun, a spokesman for South Korea's Unification Ministry, said during a briefing after the Lunar New Year holiday. "Our government has a consistent position of developing inter-Korean relations through dialogue."
The Seoul government Wednesday said it will outlaw the use of North Korean bills for an anti-North Korea leaflet campaign, Yonhap said. Several organizations said they would send North Korean money and propaganda material to North Korea in February.
"The government's position is that it should not permit bringing in North Korean bills, due to concern that it may damage the order of inter-Korean exchanges," the South Korean unification ministry spokesman said.
