President Yoon proposes inter-Korean dialogue channel

President Yoon Suk Yeol delivered an address on Thursday to mark the 79th Liberation Day and proposed the establishment of an official inter-Korean dialogue channel. This is the first time that President Yoon has directly proposed a dialogue between the two Koreas. In the speech, President Yoon did not mention past issues, including Japan's colonial rule and forced labor.

President Yoon participated in the Liberation Day ceremony at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in Jongno District, Seoul. Yoon said, “I propose that authorities from both Koreas establish an ‘Inter-Korean Working Group.’” He continued, “This body could take up any issue ranging from relieving tensions to economic cooperation, people-to-people and cultural exchanges, and disaster and climate-change responses. Inter-Korean dialogue should not be merely a political spectacle but rather serve as a substantive opportunity to discuss, for instance, a guarantee of peace for our people and North Korea's, and ways to improve their lives.” The president called for the North to respond, saying, “we will keep the door to inter-Korean dialogue wide open.”

In particular, President Yoon stated, “Only when a unified, free, and democratic nation rightfully owned by the people is established across the entire Korean Peninsula will we finally have complete liberation,” suggesting a new vision and strategy that emphasizes unification under a free and democratic system.

“The freedom we enjoy must be extended to the frozen kingdom of the North, where people are deprived of freedom and suffer from poverty and starvation. We need to change the minds of the North Korean people to make them ardently desire a freedom-based unification,” President Yoon said. “To this end, we will expand the 'right of access to information' so that North Koreans can use various channels to secure a variety of outside information.” As this strategy formalizes its aim to introduce external information into North Korea to induce changes in its residents and encourage defection to achieve unification, it is expected to cause a stir.


Hyung-Jun Hwang constant25@donga.com