Unification Minister Chung Dong-young says U.S. financial sanctions on North Korea are a bilateral issue and not on the agenda of the six-way nuclear talks.

Speaking Tuesday to the Advisory Council on Democratic and Peaceful Unification, Chung said Seoul will not yield from its firm policy of drawing a line between bilateral and multilateral affairs.

On the 17th inter-Korean ministerial level talks opening next week on Jeju Island, he said he will try to persuade the North to implement the joint agreement reached in September in the fourth round of the nuclear talks.

Chung said earnest talks for peace on the Korean Peninsula will begin after Seoul clearly tells Pyongyang that economic cooperation is limited unless the peace matter is resolved.

The ministerial meeting will also discuss holding senior military talks, diversifying business cooperation, hosting regular video reunions of separated families and repatriating South Korean abductees and prisoners of war in the North.