TOKYO (Sputnik) – Jung’s short comment was cited by the Yonhap news service in response to a question whether South Korean leadership had plans to initiate dialogue with North Korea in the new year.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for a new era in national reunification and improving ties with the south in a New Year’s address on Friday.
"The government’s position remains steadfast in [the need to] open the doors of South and North dialogue, to aspire for an era of peaceful reunification," Jung said.
In December 2015, the sides resumed talks after tensions escalated in August with an exchange of cross-border fire along the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). Pyongyang declared what it described a "semi-state of war" at the time.
The two-day talks finished without a breakthrough.
