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Lee made the offer in an interview with the Washington Post last week during a visit to the United States for talks with President Bush, saying the countries need a better channel of communication.

Relations between the divided Koreas have chilled since Lee took office in February with a pledge to get tough on Pyongyang. Lee says he opposes unconditional assistance to the North and calls for its nuclear disarmament as a precondition for economic cooperation.

North Korea has bristled at the hard-line stance, and since late last month has expelled South Korean officials from a shared industrial complex, test-fired missiles, and threatened to reduce the South to "ashes." The Korean War ended in 1953 with a truce, not a peace treaty, which means the two sides technically remain at war. Relations improved significantly under Lee's two liberal predecessors -- Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun -- who pursued detente with North Korea with massive aid and concessions

The U.S. ambassador to Seoul said Wednesday that Korea's decision to resume U.S. beef imports will strengthen their bilateral alliance and that he was confident Seoul's free trade pact with Washington will get ratified in the U.S. within this year.

The U.S. envoy noted opposition in the U.S. Congress in the presidential election year but said he was "confident" that it will get ratified within U.S. President George W. Bush's term.

Nonetheless, President Bush explained to President Lee in Camp David less than two weeks ago that it is a priority for him to get Congress to ratify KORUS-FTA in 2008 and I'm confident he can meet that goal

We often refer to FTA as a 'win-win' agreement because both Korea and the United States will benefit, but it might be more appropriate to call it a 'win-win-win-win' because not

only the countries benefit but because businesses and consumers will benefit as well," he said.