Anchor: As the Moon administration races to improve ties with North Korea, it's apparently looking to lift a set of unilateral sanctions imposed by Seoul after one of the most tense moments in recent North-South history. At an annual parliamentary audit Wednesday, Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said her ministry is in consultations with other related ministries on the sanctions passed on May 24th, 2010.
Kurt Achin has this report.

Report: South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-hwa told lawmakers Wednesday various government ministries are reviewing the prospect of lifting what are commonly known as the May 24th sanctions, named for the date they were imposed.

That date, May 24th of 2010, was less than two months after the sinking of South Korea's naval vessel, the Cheonan, killing 46 sailors at sea. 

It was only four days after a South Korea-led panel of international experts concluded the vessel was sunk by a torpedo fired from a North Korean submarine.

The May 24th measures slammed the brakes on all North-South economic cooperation and trade, drawing an angry official reaction from Pyongyang.

Lifting them is not a radically new idea-- it has been floated before, even by conservative governments, as the atmosphere between North and South Korea became less confrontational in years that followed.

Now, Foreign Minister Kang says ending the May 24th sanctions would permit South Koreans once again to visit a tourist facility at the North's Mount Geumgang, and to engage in other forms of North-South economic cooperation.

Such visits, she says, violate only South Korean's unilateral May 24th sanctions, and not international sanctions aimed at North Korea's nuclear program.

Kang told lawmakers the Moon government will actively push for the North's denuclearization in close cooperation with the United States.

Even with more harmonious North-South relations, lifting the sanctions may be an uphill battle in domestic political terms.  

North Korea has always denied sinking the Cheonan. With no admission or apology, some South Koreans may view the lifting of sanctions connected to the sinking as an insult to those who lost their lives.  
Kurt Achin, KBS World Radio News.