North Korea has proposed working-level talks with South Korea at Gaeseong on Sunday in response to Seoul’s proposal to hold South-North ministerial talks in Seoul next week.

A spokesman for the North’s Committee for Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland of Korea said in an interview with the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency on Friday that Pyongyang positively views the fact that the South promptly and positively responded to its proposal for government-level talks.

The spokesman added that the North will reopen the Panmunjeom Red Cross liaison channel from 2 p.m. Friday, saying it hopes the South will respond to the proposal on the working-level talks through the channel.

The spokesman said it is the North’s view that “working contact between the two Koreas’ authorities is necessary prior to ministerial-level talks proposed by the South in the light of the prevailing situation in which bilateral relations have been stalemated for years and mistrust has reached the extremity.”