South Korean President Lee reaffirms commitment to establishing peace regime on Korean Peninsula
Seoul, Sep 18 (IANS) South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Friday reiterated his commitment to replacing the armistice that suspended the 1950-53 Korean War with a permanent peace regime.
South Korean President made the remarks in a speech at a ceremony at the National Assembly commemorating the Pyongyang Joint Declaration, signed on September 19, 2018, by then President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un following their summit in Pyongyang. The speech was read on his behalf by Kim Kyoung-soo, Lee’s special aide for political affairs.
The 2018 declaration affirmed the two Koreas’ determination to end military hostility across their border and to boost cooperation.
Lee said that despite the declaration, inter-Korean dialogue and cooperation have ceased while tensions have risen, highlighting North Korea’s rapid advancement of its nuclear weapons capabilities in the meantime, Yonhap News Agency reported.
Now, South Korea is witnessing signs of hope for the resumption of dialogue between North Korea and the United States, the president noted, pledging to help expedite its resumption and efforts to have it develop into dialogue for a peace regime on the peninsula.
“There is a hand tapping the door for North Korea-US talks again,” Lee said, apparently referring to US President Donald Trump’s repeated bid to resume diplomacy with North Korea’s Kim.
“Our government will do its utmost to have the gesture lead to the resumption of North Korea-US dialogue and develop into discussions to end war on the Korean Peninsula and establish a peace regime,” the president said.
He also voiced his commitment to upholding the 2018 agreement as a milestone guiding relevant government efforts.
On Thursday, South Korea’s Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said that resuming dialogue with North Korea would never be possible if Pyongyang is asked to denuclearise first.
He made the remarks in an opening address at a ministry-hosted academic forum on peaceful coexistence with North Korea.
“We cannot start any discussion by repeating the past approach; action first, compensation later, with denuclearisation as a precondition,” he said, adding that such an approach would keep any dialogue from ever getting off the ground.
Chung also argued that a breakthrough in stalled inter-Korean relations and lasting peaceful coexistence would remain out of reach, as long as the armistice system persists.
The 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.
“This is why the Lee Jae Myung administration has argued the armistice on the Korean Peninsula should be replaced with a peace regime,” he said.
For lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula, Chung called for handling several issues simultaneously under what he termed a “basket” approach, which includes an end to the Korean War, institutionalising peaceful coexistence, normalising relations between Pyongyang and Washington, halting North Korea’s nuclear program and reviving inter-Korean economic cooperation.
The issues in the basket are interconnected and mutually reinforcing, and should move forward together, he said.
–IANS
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