South Korea's president urged North Korea on Sunday to stop stoking tension, saying engagement with the international community will serve the reclusive communist nation's interests better than missiles and nuclear weapons, according to AP. Tension between the two Koreas has run high since conservative, pro-U.S. President Lee Myung-bak took office in Seoul one year ago. It has further intensified in recent weeks amid reports the North plans to test-fire a long-range missile. North Korea has cut off government-level talks with Seoul and halted joint projects to protest Lee's hard-line approach, which includes the suspension of his liberal predecessors' policy of sending unconditional aid to the North. «What protects North Korea is not nuclear weapons and missiles but South-North cooperation and cooperation with the international community,» Lee said in a nationally televised speech marking Korea's independence movement against Japanese colonial rule. Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone, speaking after meetings Sunday with top Chinese leaders including Premier Wen Jiabao, called on the North «to exercise self-restraint and not to escalate the tension or anxiety in the region.» Chinese officials «listened to our view,» Nakasone was quoted as saying in a statement read to reporters by Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kazuo Kodama in Beijing. The Chinese officials had yet to «decide their judgment on their own,» he said. China remains the North's only major ally and a key donor of food and energy. The South Korean president called for a quick resumption of talks between the two Koreas, still technically at war because the 1950s Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. North Korea said last week that it was preparing to launch a communication satellite into orbit as part of its space development program. The United States, South Korea and other neighboring countries believe the launch may be a cover for a missile test, saying the action would trigger international sanctions. «I would hope that the North Koreans would not be provocative in their actions. And in fact, we're keeping a very, very close eye on what they're doing,» Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on the TV program «Fox News Sunday.» Analysts say North Korea's planned launch is a bid for President Barack Obama's attention as international disarmament talks have remained stalled for months over how to verify the North's past nuclear activities. The two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia have been involved in on-and-off talks aimed at getting the North to give up its nuclear weapons program in return for aid and other benefits. Lee said South Korea is ready to help the North rebuild its shattered economy with the international community if it lives up to its pledge to abandon its nuclear weapons. «The denuclearization would be the shortcut for North Korea to rapidly become a member of the international community,» Lee said. Later Sunday, dozens of conservative activists staged an anti-North Korea rally in Seoul during which they burned the North's flag and replicas of its long-range missile. «We're urging the North's nuclear dismantling,» the activists chanted.
