South Korea's president said "the door for dialogue is still open" with North Korea on condition it abandons "military adventurism."

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak held out the olive branch to the North in his annual new year's speech, saying he wanted the resumption of the long-stalled six-way talks over the communist nation's nuclear weapons.

"It is imperative now more than ever for countries concerned to play a fair and responsible role," he said, referring to negotiations with North Korea that include China, the United States, Japan and Russia.

"I remind the North that the path toward peace is yet to be closed." However, "nuclear weapons and military adventurism must be discarded. The North must work toward peace and cooperation not only with rhetoric but also with deeds."

But South Korea would respond to any threat against even "an inch of our territory."

Lee also said he wanted North Korea show movement on to "drastically enhance economic cooperation" in partnership with other countries. "Taking it a step further, we need to make endeavors to engage our North Korean brethren in the long journey toward freedom and prosperity."

Lee's speech, an apparent attempt to improve relations between Seoul and Pyongyang, comes after a rocky end to 2010 for the two countries that were created after the end in 1953 of a bloody three-year civil war that divided the Korean Peninsula.

Military tensions rose dramatically last year, beginning in March with the sinking, allegedly by North Korea, of the South Korean patrol boat Cheonan and the loss of 46 sailors.

An international investigating team said it found strong evidence that the 1,200-ton Cheonan split in half after being hit with a torpedo of North Korean manufacture. The team said the torpedo was likely fired by a small to mid-size submarine but North Korea denied it was involved.

Relations dipped further Nov. 23 when North Korea unexpectedly shelled the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong in the Yellow Sea and several miles from the North's mainland.

The daylight attack, in which North Korea fired around 170 shells, damaged dozens of houses and several military buildings. It also killed two South Korean marines and two civilians and injured at least 20 people. South Korean forces returned fire but there were no known causalities.

Lee said "the situation before and after the provocation against Yeonpyeong Island cannot be the same." Similar attacks will not be tolerated and "such provocations will be met with stern, strong responses.

"The shelling of Yeonpyeong Island also served as an opportunity for us to reflect on our security readiness and overhaul our defense posture. There cannot be any delay in establishing security measures," he said.

Lee's speech comes after South Korea's Unification Ministry said last week that one of its policies for 2011 would be to lay out detailed preparations should unification of the two Koreas appear likely.

Lee's speech also comes after editorials in the North Korean media that the two Koreas should improve relations but South Korea must stop its "reckless and wild behavior" toward the North.

"The danger of war should be removed and peace safeguarded in the Korean Peninsula," the state-run Korean Central News Agency said. KCNA quoted a North Korean editorial saying, "If a war breaks out on this land, it will bring nothing but a nuclear holocaust."

For that reason, "confrontation between North and South should be defused as early as possible. Dialogue and cooperation should be promoted proactively."

Lee's live address to the nation was made ahead of the arrival Tuesday in Seoul of Stephen Bosworth, the U.S. envoy responsible for policy toward North Korea, as part of his swing later through China and Japan. Bosworth will be accompanied by Sung Kim, the U.S. envoy for nuclear talks with North Korea.

earlier related report
N.Korea calls for better relations with South
Seoul (AFP) Jan 1, 2011 - North Korea began 2011 with calls for improved relations with South Korea after a year of tensions marked by the first deadly attack on a civilian area since the war.

"Confrontation between North and South should be defused as early as possible," a joint New Year editorial of three leading North Korean state newspapers said on Saturday.

"Dialogue and cooperation should be promoted proactively," it said.

Relations plunged after the North shelled a border island in November, killing four people, including two civilians.

World leaders leapt to condemn the attack, with many calling on China to rein in its unpredictable ally, something Beijing so far appears unwilling to do.

The South has since staged a series of military exercises, including a live-fire drill on December 20 on the island but the North did not follow through with threats of a new and deadlier attack.

The editorial, which North Koreans are obliged to read, said: "This year we should launch a more determined campaign to improve inter-Korean relations.

"Active efforts should be made to create an atmosphere of dialogue and cooperation between North and South by placing the common interests of the nation above anything else."

Professor Yang Moo-Jin of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul said Pyongyang was apparently pursuing stability on the Korean peninsula to cement an eventual hereditary succession by heir apparent Kim Jong-Un.

The youngest son of leader Kim Jong-Il burst into the limelight in September. He was appointed a four-star general, given senior ruling party posts and appeared in photos and at a mass parade close to his father, whose health is widely thought to be failing.

The editorial, which was carried by the North's official news agency, also reiterated that Pyongyang, whose nuclear drive is the subject of currently stalled six-party talks, is committed to denuclearisation.

But in a reference to South Korean military drills that have sometimes included the United States, the newspapers warned: "It is imperative to check the North-targeted war exercises and arms build-up of the bellicose forces at home and abroad that seriously threaten national security and peace."

As well as the communist North's deadly shelling of Yeonpyeong island, Seoul also accuses the North of sinking one of its warships in March near the disputed border in the Yellow Sea, a charge Pyongyang strongly denies.

The conciliatory tone of the editorial is in stark contrast to the bellicose language used by North Korea for much of the year as relations with Seoul dived.

However, it did warn: "The danger of war should be removed and peace safeguarded in the Korean peninsula.

"If a war breaks out on this land, it will bring nothing but a nuclear holocaust."

In December, the impoverished North warned it was ready for a "sacred war" using its nuclear weapons as the South held a live-fire drill in a show of strength.

"The editorials hint the North will wait for the China-US summit this month and the US-South Korea annual joint military drill in March to decide its course of action between dialogue and confrontation," Yang told AFP.

Pyongyang reportedly offered nuclear concessions to US politician Bill Richardson in a visit last month but Seoul and Washington have expressed scepticism about the North's apparent overtures.

Pyongyang pulled out of nuclear talks involving the two Koreas, the United States, Russia, China, and Japan in April 2009 and ordered UN nuclear inspectors out of the country.

It staged a second nuclear test a month later.

Hong Hyun-Ik, senior researcher at the private Sejong Institute, wrote in the independent Hankyoreh daily that the North would conduct a third nuclear test unless the mood turns toward dialogue following the Sino-US summit.

Cheong Seong-Chang, another analyst at the Sejong Institute, said North Korea needs tension reduction to achieve the goal of improving living standards.

"This is why the North appears to be self-contradictory in denouncing the South's policy toward the North while emphasizing the need for improving inter-Korean relations," Cheong said.

Much of the annual editorial, which is regarded as setting the direction of policy in the secretive country for the coming year, focused on improving living standards in North Korea, which suffers chronic food shortages.

Leader Kim Jong-Il was quoted as saying: "We should bring earlier the bright future of a thriving nation by making continuous innovations and advance, full of confidence in victory."