SEOUL - SOUTH Korea denied reports on Monday that it is secretly pursuing contact with North Korea to ease tensions that have flared in recent months.
Relations between the two Koreas soured rapidly after South Korean President Lee Myung-bak took office in February with a pledge to get tough with Pyongyang.
In response, the North suspended reconciliation talks and took other angry steps to raise tensions, including halting two landmark joint projects - cross-border train service and a tourism programme - and reducing the number of South Koreans allowed access to a joint industrial park.
In its report on Monday, Seoul's Chosun Ilbo newspaper cited an unnamed senior government official as saying the South had been in contact with Pyongyang through unspecified channels to talk about meeting behind the scenes.
The paper also reported that the North told Seoul that its stance on relations with the South had softened.
The government denied the report, saying Seoul is seeking no secret talks with the North.
'There is nothing under way regarding the underwater dialogue,' Kim Ho-nyeon, spokesman for the Unification Ministry, said referring to a phrase used in the newspaper report.
Seoul's Yonhap news agency later reported from Beijing that the two Koreas had 'secret contacts' during which the North expressed a strong willingness to improve relations with the South.
The report cited unidentified sources saying the North offered to repatriate some of the South Koreans taken prisoner during the 1950-53 Korean War or abducted after the conflict ended. In exchange, the North demanded Seoul resume economic aid projects for the North, the report said.
The report came as South Korean Unification Minister Kim Ha-joong was on a visit to Beijing.
The ministry denied the Yonhap report as well. -- AP
