The new Kim Jong-un regime in North Korea faces fundamental difficulties consolidating its power due to its sickly economy and tensions with the international community, the unification minister said Monday.
"The official process to take over power and dominate the power groups has smoothly taken place," Minister Yu Woo-ik said in a meeting with foreign correspondents in Seoul.
But difficulties still remain in its ongoing efforts to stabilize the new regime, he said.
"Closed external relations and its domestic economy being in dire condition pose fundamental limitations to the power stabilization efforts," Yu said.
The minister also called on the North to make sincere policy changes and show responsible actions in order to help improve inter-Korean relations, which have dived to the worst level in decades.
"The primary obligation to untangle these (restrained) relations lies with the North, which gave cause (for the frozen ties)," Yu said, referring to the North's attack on a South Korean island and a Navy ship in 2010, which led to a chill in the inter-Korean relationship.
Unless the North apologizes and accepts responsibility, relations with the South will remain unchanged even under the next administration, he said.
Also referring to the North's unexpected parliamentary meeting on Tuesday, Yu said the parliamentary discussion could possibly include economic reforms.
Speculations have risen that the North will take legal steps to start economic reforms since the country said in early September that it will hold a second session of its rubber-stamp parliament, the Supreme People's Assembly. Generally the parliament meets only once each year.
Even if the North takes reformist actions, "It's only when the country starts to visibly improve the livelihoods of its people that we can assess (the results) of the efforts," he noted.
Referring to the North's recent violations of the western sea border, Yu said Seoul is on alert against any further incursions.
Last week, North Korean fishing vessels crossed into the southern side of the maritime border in the Yellow Sea, known as the Northern Limit Line (NLL), on several occasions, causing the South to fire warning shots on Friday to repel them.
"At the beginning (of the series of incursions), the government saw it was only by a mistake ... but the incursions were made by too many ships on too many occasions to be dismissed as mere mistakes," he said.
"I hope the unusual violations of the NLL were not planned by the North with provocative intentions," the minister said, adding the government and the military will be closely keeping an eye on further incursions in the western sea front. (Yonhap)