South Korea Monday proposed talks with North Korea on preventing flooding in a cross-border river after six people were drowned in the South last month, officials said.
The proposal for talks on Wednesday was delivered through a cross-border hotline, the Unification Ministry said.
"We sent our proposals to North Korea today calling for talks on the peaceful use of the river and preventing possible damage from flooding," spokeswoman Lee Jong-Joo told AFP.
There was no immediate response from the North, she said.
The North on September 6 released millions of tonnes of water from a dam across the Imjin river, sweeping away six South Koreans camping downstream.
The incident stirred anger in the South and threatened to damage relations which had lately been improving after months of bellicose moves by the North.
The North said a sudden surge in the dam's water level prompted an "emergency" release.
It has yet to respond to the South's call for an apology and full explanation but Seoul's Defence Minister Kim Tae-Young said last month there was no evidence of a deliberate "water attack".
After more than a year of hostility, Pyongyang in August began making peace overtures to Seoul as well as to Washington.
It freed five South Korean detainees, eased curbs on the operation of a joint industrial estate, sent envoys for talks with President Lee Myung-Bak and authorised a new round of family reunions.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said on Saturday after a summit with South Korean and Japanese leaders in Beijing that Pyongyang wanted better relations with Seoul.
North Korea "not only hopes to improve its relations with the United States, but also to improve relations with Japan and South Korea", he said.
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