North Korean leader Kim Jong un’s  influential sister says the North is ready talk with the South if it ends its “hostile policies.”

Kim Yo-jong was replying to the South’s renewed call to officially end the Korean War.

The conflict that divided the peninsula ended in 1953 with an armistice rather than a peace treaty.

Since then, the two countries have been technically at war and have had a tense relationship.

This week, South Korean President Moon Jae-in urged the two Koreas and their allies – the United States, which supports the South, and China, which is the North’s largest economic partner – to declare a formal end to the conflict and bring peace to the peninsula.

A top North Korean minister initially dismissed the idea as “premature.”

Ms Kim, on the other hand, said the idea was “admirable” in an unexpected statement released on Friday through state media.

She did, however, add that the North would only be willing to discuss the proposal if the South ceased its “hostile policies” toward them.

“What needs to be dropped is the double-dealing attitudes, illogical prejudice, bad habits and hostile stand of justifying their own acts while faulting our just exercise of the right to self-defence,” she said in a statement as cited by BBC.

“Only when such a precondition is met, would it be possible to sit face to face and declare the significant termination of war.”

For nearly 5 years, this administration in Seoul has hoped for the end of a more than 70-year war on the Korean peninsula.

President Moon, on the other hand, is running out of time. His replacement will be chosen in March.

He gambled on meeting Kim Jong-un and shaking his hand on Mount Paektu’s sacred summit. However, relations between the two Koreas have deteriorated since then.

North Korea even blew up an office that was specifically designed to house talks between the two sides. It appeared that all hope for peace talks had vanished.

But here we are, with another glimmer of hope in the form of a statement from Kim Yo-jong.

But, there are lots of “ifs” and “buts” in there.

So, does she really mean it? Kim Yo-jong does not mince words. She, on the other hand, is bouncing everything back to Seoul.

It might as well say: “Talks will only follow if you behave in a way we deem worthy”.

And no one knows when that will be.

South Korea tested its first submarine-launched ballistic missile earlier this month, just hours after the North tested their own weapon.

North Korea has also frequently criticized South Korea’s annual military exercises with the United States.

Relations between the two countries have deteriorated significantly since denuclearization talks between Mr Kim and US President Donald Trump broke down in 2019.

Mr Moon, who has made engagement with the North a cornerstone of his presidency, has previously argued that a cease-fire declaration would encourage the North to denuclearize.

North Korea, for its part, has demanded that crippling economic sanctions be lifted first.

However, the United States has repeatedly stated that North Korea must first abandon its nuclear weapons before any sanctions can be lifted.

Analysis by Laura Bicker – BBC Seoul Correspondent

Photo by Valery Sharifulin via Getty Images