Seoul proposes January unification talks with North Korea

SEOUL, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- South Korea has proposed holding unification talks with North Korea in January.

"The South and the North will have to meet each other and discuss ways toward a peaceful reunification," South Korean Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae told reporters Monday.

Toward that end, the ministry sent a fax addressed to North Korea's Kim Yang Gon, head of Pyongyang's United Front Department, proposing a dialogue on "issues of mutual concern."

Ryoo said that he "or Jeong Jong-wook, who is the vice chairman representing the private sector, hope to sit down with the North in Seoul, Pyongyang, or at a mutual location of agreement."

The proposed talks precede Korea's 70th liberation anniversary from Japan's colonial rule.

Pyongyang did not issue an immediate response. The two countries last held ministerial talks in Seoul in May 2007; a vice ministerial meeting was held in February.