Next S.Korea leader pledges dialogue with N.Korea

South Korea’s next president said Thursday he will try hard to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons and offered the communist state a dramatic rise in living standards in return.

Lee Myung-Bak, a conservative who takes office on February 25, said “utmost efforts” would be made to promote dialogue and exchanges with the North.

“We will continue to persuade North Korea that giving up its nuclear weapons programmes will benefit both the regime and its people,” he told a press conference for foreign journalists.

Lee restated a pledge to raise the North’s per capita income to 3,000 dollars within a decade in return for full denuclearisation.

The US State Department estimated per capita gross national income at 914 dollars in 2004.

Six-nation negotiations on scrapping the nuclear programme in return for aid and diplomatic benefits are currently stalled.

Seoul, Thursday, AFP