President Lee Myung-bak on Monday urged North Korea to end its hostility and seek peace and prosperity, less than a week after Pyongyang apparently rejected Seoul’s behind-the-scenes proposal for summit talks.

“North Korea should break away from the path of confrontation and conflict, and come out onto the path of peace and prosperity,” Lee said during a Memorial Day speech at the National Cemetery in Seoul.

“For this, we will continue to make sincere and consistent efforts with patience.”

Lee has reiterated this basic position that he has held ever since he took office in early 2008, stressing that Seoul is still waiting for Pyongyang to change despite its unwillingness to cooperate.

North Korean state media revealed last Wednesday that senior Seoul officials have proposed through secret meetings with the North to hold three summit talks in June, August and next March.

The Korean Central News Agency said the South Korean officials “pleaded” with the North to make an apology for attacking a South Korean naval ship and a border island last year, killing 50 South Koreans.

The KCNA even named a presidential secretary, a Unification Ministry official and a member of the national intelligence agency as the officials who had “secret contacts” with their North Korean counterparts in Beijing and elsewhere in May.

The KCNA report was a breach of diplomatic protocol as the South and North usually keep preparations for a summit strictly confidential.

The surprise attack against the Lee administration last week poured cold water on the prospects for a summit meeting in the near future, but revealed that Lee, on his part, had been seeking to meet with Kim Jong-il.

On May 9, Lee extended a conditional invitation to the North’s leader Kim Jong-il to a world nuclear summit to be held in Seoul next year, which Pyongyang officially called as “nonsense.”

About the North’s claims last week that the South “begged” for summit talks, Seoul’s Unification Ministry simply warned that such an attitude would not help improve inter-Korean relations at all. South Korean officials claimed the May 14 meeting in Beijing was to seek an apology from the North for the two attacks, not to propose the summit talks.

During his speech on Monday, Lee also said the South should be prepared for unification with the North.

Lee has stressed the importance of bringing the divided Korean states together, saying unification is “not a matter of choice but a must” that should be sought at any cost because it will provide the Korean people with a springboard to prosperity.

Lee has also said that unification with the communist nation could come at any time.

The two Koreas fought the 1950-53 Korean War that ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty, leaving the two sides still technically at war and their border one of the world’s most heavily armed.

Lee said that the South will make sure to protect the values of free democracy, market economy and the rule of law.

Lee also said that the government will implement better welfare measures for the patriots, providing them with greater support in employment, education, medical and housing matters.

By Kim So-hyun  (sophie@heraldcorp.com)