South Korea open to talks with North 'without setting pre-conditions'

Signaling her intention to end the stand-off between North and South Korea, South Korean President Park Geun-hye has expressed her willingness to hold talks with North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un without setting pre-conditions but added that the nation should take "sincere" steps towards "denuclearisation."

In a nationally televised press conference on Monday, she said she would "meet with anyone if necessary to open the path of a peaceful unification," reported the BBC.

The statement comes shortly after Jong-un offered to hold talks with his counterpart in his New Year message by saying that there would be no reason to not hold high-level summit on the reunification of the two Koreas "if the conditions were right."

North Korea has conducted three nuclear tests in recent years, aggravating relations with the South.

However, it has offered to put a moratorium on nuclear testing if South Korea puts a hold on the military exercises it holds with American forces. That offer was rejected and the two allies plan to hold a joint naval drill this week.

The two leaders, Jong-un and Geun-hye, have met only twice, in 2000 and 2007, since the Korean War divided the peninsula.