Seoul, Jan 12 The South Korean government will continue efforts to ease tensions and build trust with North Korea despite Pyongyang's recent claim accusing Seoul of carrying out drone incursions into the country, the unification ministry said on Monday.
Unification ministry spokesperson Yoon Min-ho made the remarks after President Lee Jae Myung ordered last week the creation of a joint military-police investigation team to look into the alleged drone incursions.
On Sunday, Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, demanded that Seoul provide a detailed explanation, a day after the North Korean military claimed that the South violated the North's sovereignty by sending drones carrying surveillance equipment in September and on January 4.
"It's important to continue efforts to alleviate tensions and build trust between the South and the North through prompt truth-finding by the investigation team," the spokesperson said in a press briefing.
Yoon also reaffirmed Seoul's stance that it has no intention of provoking or irritating North Korea, Yonhap news agency reported.
The South Korean military has denied sending the drones on the dates claimed by the North or operating the models found in the North, raising the possibility that they may have been flown by private entities.
On Saturday, North Korea had claimed that South Korea infringed on its sovereignty with drone incursions in September last year and earlier this week, saying that Seoul should be ready to 'pay a high price' for what it called a provocation.
But South Korea's defence ministry had rejected Pyongyang's claim, saying the South's military did not operate drones on the dates asserted by the North.
A spokesperson of the General Staff of the Korean People's Army issued a statement denouncing South Korea as 'the most hostile' enemy, insisting that Seoul has continued to stage provocative acts, contradicting its overtures for dialogue with Pyongyang, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
"The Republic of Korea (ROK) should be ready to pay a high price for having committed another provocation of infringing on the sovereignty of the DPRK with a drone," the spokesperson said, referring to South Korea by its official name. DPRK is short for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
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