South Korea will not pursue "large-scale" economic opportunities with North Korea while the nuclear issue remains unresolved, said Foreign Minister Ban Ki Moon Wednesday. However, existing humanitarian assistance will continue, said Ban at his weekly press briefing in Seoul. Just returned from the U.S., Ban added that South Korea's position was shared with the Washington during his week-long visit. Ban said imposing sanctions on North Korea was dismissed during his talks with U.S. officials. "We've neither discussed pressure nor do we need to do that at this point. We have to focus on resolving the problem through dialogue," said Ban. Ban didn't provide details as to which "large-scale" projects would be affected, according to a Foreign Ministry spokesman. Though it is likely that an industrial park under joint development on the border city Kaesong will now be stalled. South Korea has been pursuing inter-Korean cooperative talks for years. They have been hampered by North Korea's pursuit of a nuclear weapons programme. Pyongyang declared in a statement last Thursday that it had already produced nuclear weapons for self defence and announced it would boycott six-nation talks aimed at resolving the issue until the United States abandons a "hostile policy". --SP 1103 Local Time 0803 GMT
