South Korea

Published on Saturday 15 August 2009 20:12

PRESIDENT Lee Myung-bak yesterday called on North Korea to reach a deal to cut conventional arms amassed on their heavily fortified border and renewed a pledge to provide aid if the North ends its nuclear ambitions.

North Korea, which harshly criticised President Lee, last week released a South Korean worker held captive since March in a rare conciliatory gesture.

"If the North and South reduce conventional weapons and troops, enormous resources will be freed up to improve the economies on both sides," Lee said in a speech marking the anniversary of the end of Japanese colonial rule over the Korean peninsula in 1945.

The rival Koreas, technically still at war, have more than one million troops positioned near the land-mine strewn Demilitarised Zone buffer that has divided the peninsula since fighting ended in 1953 with a cease fire.

"Now is the time for the North and South to come to the table and talk about these issues," Lee said.

Impoverished North Korea resents Lee's policy of ending unconditional handouts – once equal to about 5 per cent of the North's estimated $17 billion a year economy.