South Korea on Monday rejected the North’s offer to host a joint gathering to mark the 13th anniversary of the June 15 inter-Korean joint declaration.

The Ministry of Unification said in a statement that Pyongyang should not try to stir internal discord within South Korea by calling for a joint gathering involving private organizations who do not have the authority to resolve outstanding issues that can only be handled at the government level.

The June 15 declaration reached at the historic 2000 summit meeting between late South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il kicked off a period of rapprochement between the two countries that saw large-scale bilateral cooperation and the expansion of economic ties.

“Seoul cannot accept plans to arrange a ‘political event’ that can stir North-South friction, and we again call on the North to come to the working-level negotiating table proposed on May 14,” ministry spokesman Kim Hyung-suk said in a news conference.

The official said that the North’s position of persistently ignoring calls for direct talks between officials and only striving to make contact with progressive and liberal groups in the South can only be viewed with suspicion.

“If the North genuinely wants dialogue, the first step should be responding to our repeated call for working-level governmental talks on the Gaeseong industrial complex,” the spokesman said.

Kim said that what is needed at present is for the North to take steps to restore emergency hotlines that have been cut and engage in talks to normalize operations at the inter-Korean industrial complex in Gaeseong.

The Unification Ministry also criticized the North for a recent personal attack on Park Geun-hye in which it labeled her a “confrontation maniac.”

“For the sake of healthy inter-Korean relations, the North needs to control and restrain itself ... and immediately stop such remarks that are too unspeakable for us to quote here,” spokesman Kim told reporters.

Park, who is scheduled to visit Beijing for a summit with President Xi next month, said Monday she would seek to “work more closely with China in order to resolve North Korea issues.”

Park said Monday she would use next month’s visit to further bolster cooperation with Beijing in getting North Korea to return to the negotiating table and become a responsible member of the international community.

Park is scheduled to visit China late next month for her first summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping since taking office in February. Their meeting is expected to focus on North Korea as Pyongyang has signaled its willingness for dialogue.

“On the occasion of next month’s visit to China, I will work more closely with China in order to resolve North Korea issues,” Park said during a weekly meeting of senior secretaries. “I will try to get North Korea to become a responsible member of the international community and come forward for dialogue without fail.”

The ministry brushed off an apparent offer by North Korea to resume nuclear disarmament talks contained in a letter delivered Friday by an envoy of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to Chinese President Xi Jinping.

South Korea also brushed off an apparent offer by North Korea to resume nuclear disarmament talks.

Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se on Monday called for North Korea to demonstrate its “sincerity” through action.

“Our stance is that there should not be talks for the sake of talks and North Korea must show its sincerity to the international community by implementing its past denuclearization pledges,” Yun told reporters.

Yun made the remarks days after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s special envoy, Choe Ryong-hae, met with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday and delivered Kim’s letter. During the meeting, Xi urged the North to return to the long-stalled six-nation talks on Pyongyang’s nuclear standoff.

Chinese state media said the letter cited the North’s willingness to resume stalled six-party talks on denuclearization involving China, the two Koreas, the United States, Russia and Japan.

The reported message was greeted with skepticism in South Korea, where observers saw it as an effort to appease Beijing, rather than a genuine signal of intent.

North Korea has repeatedly declared that its program to develop a viable nuclear deterrent is not open to negotiation.

Seoul and Washington, meanwhile, insist that the North must demonstrate its commitment to abandoning its nuclear weapons program in order for formal talks to begin.

The North Korean state media’s coverage of envoy Choe Ryong-hae’s visit to China made no mention whatsoever of a dialogue proposal.

Of the letter handed to President Xi, Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency said only that it conveyed Kim’s desire to deepen the “traditional friendship” between North Korea and China.

China is North Korea’s key economic benefactor and diplomatic protector, but it signed off on U.N. sanctions punishing Pyongyang for its nuclear test in February.

From news reports