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Sanctions against North Korea to stay in force - South Korea’s ministry of unification

SEOUL, May 7. /TASS/. South Korea is not planning to lift its sanctions imposed on Pyongyang as a preliminary condition for the launch of intra-Korean dialogue, a spokesperson for the South Korean ministry of unification said on Thursday.

The spokesperson said North Korea’s position to begin dialogue only after the sanctions were lifted was unacceptable for South Korea.

In May 2010, Seoul rolled back practically all programmes of economic and cultural cooperation with North Korea and accused it of sinking its corvette Cheonan in the Yellow Sea in March of the same year and the death of 46 South Korean mariners. Pyongyang has been claiming it had nothing to do with the incident.

The spokesman said the sanctions would stay in force until North admitted its responsibility for the incident.

Earlier, North Korea repeatedly called on South to lift the punitive sanctions.

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North Korea South Korea

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