South Korea's president on Saturday 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 impoverished North ends its atomic ambitions.
North Korea, which has harshly criticized President Lee Myung-bak, this week released a South Korean worker it had held captive since March in a rare conciliatory gesture analysts said could herald a defrosting of ties.
"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 1 million troops positioned near the land-mine strewn Demilitarised Zone buffer that has divided the peninsula since fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War ended 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 has been angered by Lee's policy of ending unconditional handouts -- once equal to about 5 percent of the North's estimated $17 billion a year economy -- and instead linking aid to progress Pyongyang makes in ending the security threat it poses to the region.
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