The government seeks to first have returned South Korean prisoners of war taken by North Korea before the signing of the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War.

Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok told a group of ruling party lawmakers Thursday that POWs are categorized into two groups: those taken before the armistice and those who were captured and drafted into the North's army shortly after the war broke out in 1950.

Seoul will make the proposal next week in inter-Korean ministerial talks in Pyongyang.