Seoul, Jan 22 (IANS) South Korea’s Unification Minister Chung Dong-young on Thursday committed to seeking a breakthrough in resuming exchanges with North Korea, reaffirming Seoul’s policy of reengaging the regime to promote peace.
“By designing mutually beneficial, multilateral and innovative cooperative projects, the government will find a path to resuming inter-Korean exchanges,” Chung said during a meeting of the South-North Korea Exchanges and Cooperation Support Association, Yonhap News Agency reported.
The association, chaired by the unification minister, is a public-private consultative body on inter-Korean exchanges, comprising 25 officials from the Office of National Security and the foreign, finance and justice ministries, as well as private-sector members.
“The surest path to building peace would be (facilitating) exchanges between the South and the North,” the minister said, adding the government is ready to end hostility and reopen all roads and railways toward the North.
The Thursday meeting discussed plans for nine North Korea-related programs funded by the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund, a government fund aimed at promoting inter-Korean cooperation.
They included the publication of a joint Korean dictionary and a joint survey of the Manwoldae site, a historic Goryeo Dynasty (918–1392) palace located in present-day Kaesong, North Korea.
On January 2, South Korea’s Unification Minister Chung Dong-young urged North Korea to return to dialogue, saying South Korea is ready to talk with the North “on any agenda” to ease inter-Korean tensions.
Chung made the remarks in his New Year’s message during a ceremony at the government complex in Seoul, stressing that the two Koreas must “end inter-Korean hostilities this year.”
“The Lee Jae Myung administration, as a sovereign government, will fully support exchanges in the private sector and cooperation in areas such as public health, medical services and humanitarian issues and will not restrict or interfere in such efforts,” he said.
“We are ready to sit down with North Korea for talks anytime, anywhere and on any agenda to ease inter-Korean tensions,” he added.
Referring to the North by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Chung stressed that Seoul does not support the idea of unification by absorption.
He also proposed promoting cross-border tourism projects, including projects linked to the Wonsan-Kalma tourist zone on the east coast and the northern city of Samjiyon, near Mount Paektu.
–IANS
akl/as
