Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho says the government will actively pursue a fundamental solution to separated families, prisoners of war and South Korean detainees in North Korea regardless of the regime's provocations. 

Kim unveiled the pledge on Saturday as he stressed that the government will not rattle in the face of any provocation or rhetoric from the North. 

He made the remark during a joint ancestral service for the Lunar New Year organized by members of war-torn families at Imjinkak in the border city of Paju, Gyeonggi Province.

The minister called on the North to restore and normalize communication channels that it had unilaterally severed last April, emphasizing the first step to addressing a humanitarian issue between the two Koreas is the restoration of communication channels. 

Kim also urged North Korean authorities to immediately suspend provocations that threaten the lives of the Korean people and to not ignore the suffering of separated families.