North Korea’s Kim urges end to tensions with South Korea

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has called for an end to the tensions between his country and South Korea, saying that the new year will bring about a “radical turnabout” for the people of the North.

“An important issue in putting an end to the division of the country and achieving its reunification is to remove confrontation between the North and the South,” Kim said in his New Year’s message broadcast on state media on Monday.

“The past records of inter-Korean relations show that confrontation between fellow countrymen leads to nothing but war,” he added.

Kim called 2013 a year of “great creations and changes in which a radical turnabout will be effected.”

Tensions have been running high between Seoul and Pyongyang since November 23, 2010, when North Korea fired dozens of artillery shells onto the populated small island of Yeonpyeong, killing four South Koreans.

North and South Korea remain technically at war following the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in an armistice.

Pyongyang also accuses Washington of plotting with regional allies to topple the country’s government.

In late December 2012, the administration of US President Barack Obama notified the Congress of a possible sale of advanced spy drones to South Korea.

Earlier in October, Seoul said it had reached an agreement with Washington to extend the range of its missiles from the current limit of 300 km to 800 km.