Unification Minister Chung Dong-young says Seoul may be open to the possibility of North Korea's peaceful use of light-water reactors if Pyongyang dismantles its nuclear arms program and submits to inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Appearing on a local radio program Wednesday, Chung said Seoul's significant energy proposal to Pyongyang can be interpreted as a freeze of the project to construct the reactors in the North, adding that Seoul might be open to discussing the reactors' eventual peaceful use based on "international cooperation".

He pointed out that his country had been saddled with 70 percent of the costs but had less than "a seven-percent say" in the reactor project, stressing that the Seoul-initated new energy proposal would enable South Korea to stand on equal diplomatic footing with Japan, Russia, China and the U.S.

The government finally unveiled the details of its "important" disarmament proposal Tuesday, in which it would directly transmit two million kilowatts of electricity to the North in place of the currently suspended reactor plan if Pyongyang gives up its nuclear arms program.

Seoul has spent 1.1 billion dollars on the construction of two light-water reactors in Geumho, North Hamkyeong Province. The project was part of a disarmament accord brokered in 1994, but was indefinitely suspended after the outbreak of the current nuclear crisis.