The new South Korean minister charged with improving ties with North Korea is promising renewed efforts to revive stalled talks with Pyongyang.

Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun said Wednesday he hopes to reactivate various channels of inter-Korean dialogue to advance the peace process on the Korean peninsula.

Mr. Jeong, an expert on North Korea, was named Unification Minister Tuesday to replace Hong Soon-young.

North Korea became dissatisfied with Mr. Hong as a dialogue partner after the breakdown of the last round of cabinet level talks in November. Pyongyang, which criticized the him as a hard-liner, indicated that it would not resume dialogue with Seoul as long as Mr. Hong remained Unification Minister.

Relations between the two Koreas cooled down after President Bush, soon after taking office, said he wanted to review Washington's relations with North Korea.

Some information for this report provided by AP.

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