Anchor: In time with Seoul's Unification Minister's trip to Washington, the South Korean government appears to be considering holding comprehensive talks with North Korea on a wide range of inter-Korean issues covering separated families and current sanctions placed on the North. Ahead of next year’s 70th anniversaries of Korea's independence from Japan's colonial occupation and the following division of the two Koreas, experts suggest that Seoul believes now is a good time to thaw strained inter-Korean ties. 
Our Bae Joo-yon has more.
 
Report: Early this year, a mood for reconciliation was created between the two Koreas following high-level contacts and a reunion of separated families. But the mood didn’t last long after the North engaged in short-range missile tests in protest of South Korea-U.S. joint military exercises.
 
In October, three senior North Korean officials visited the South but the visit didn’t lead to warmer inter-Korean ties as the North raised issue with South Korean civic groups sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border. 
 
Following the ups and downs this year, a ranking South Korean government official told reporters on Friday that the government is considering holding comprehensive talks with North Korea to provide a breakthrough in strained South-North ties.
 
The official said Seoul could discuss a range of South-North issues at the talks, including reunions of separated families and the South’s so-called May 24 sanctions on the North.
 
The official stressed the need to spur efforts to resolve the issue of separated families of the Korean War, saying the South is willing to actively consider what it can give to the North to resolve the issue. 

Some experts, such as Cheong Seong-chang, a senior researcher at the Sejong Institute, suggest the South Korean government is considering such moves as it believes the timing is right to thaw strained inter-Korean ties.
 
[Sound bite: Cheong Seong-chang - Senior Researcher, The Sejong Institute (Korean)] 
“The Park Geun-hye government is likely to consider various ways to resume dialogue with North Korea as a new mood could be created in the new year after negative factors, including a UN resolution on the North’s human rights, go away at the end of this year.”
 
Some observers also say that once the Rajin-Khasan project involving the two Koreas and Russia begins, Seoul could steadily lift the so-called May 24 sanctions that it slapped on Pyongyang following the North’s sinking of the South’s Cheonan warship in 2010.
 
However, the government official added that the sanctions will only be lifted after the North takes responsible steps for the sinking.
 
The official said, regardless of who is to blame, the fact that inter-Korean relations have experienced strains for an extended period of time is regretful and expressed strong determination toward opening negotiations.
 
It is, however, unclear whether the inter-Korean negotiations will take place as opinions still remain divided within the government over the matter.
Bae Joo-yon, KBS World Radio News.