SEOUL - The South Korean government “will not just sit on [its] hands” regarding relations with North Korea, Minister of Unification Kim Yeon-chul said Monday, vowing to “leverage various opportunities to resume inter-Korean relations.”
Kim gave the keynote speech commemorating the 30th anniversary of the University of North Korean Studies, just hours before South Korean President Moon Jae-in was scheduled to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump about North Korea and denuclearization in New York.
In Seoul, analysts and scholars huddled to discuss security, peace and denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula. The mood, though sobered by a lack of recent diplomatic progress, seemed somewhat optimistic.
During his speech, Kim brought up several accomplishments scored by the United States and South Korea during its diplomatic run with the North, including the shutdown of loudspeaker propaganda and several guard posts within the Demilitarized Zone, the construction of a new DMZ peace trail and the repatriation of U.S. soldier remains.
“It has opened up rare and valuable turning points in the process toward denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula,” Kim said through an interpreter. (UPI)