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| Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul, second from right, speaks with Jeong Se-hyun, right, new deputy chair of the presidential National Unification Advisory Council, while taking part in an event in Seoul to commemorate the first anniversary of the Sept. 19 inter-Korean summit, Thursday. Yonhap |
By Lee Min-hyung
The United States and North Korea "should never lose their golden chance for peace talks," even if both sides are still facing a tough road ahead to end decades of hostility and distrust, South Korea's unification minister said Thursday.
"North Korea would be able to take a big step toward a new path called denuclearization if the U.S. and the North engage in substantive and reasonable negotiations on the basis of their bilateral trust," Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul said in a congratulatory message on the first anniversary of the historic inter-Korean summit held in Pyongyang.
The unification chief went on to say that the South Korean government would also "do everything it could" to back up the reviving dialogue momentum between the U.S. and the North.
"We are going to closely consult with the U.S., and leave open a channel for communication with the North for the two interested parties to generate good outcomes during their upcoming working-level talks," the unification minister said.
Despite no exact timeline being fixed so far, Washington and Pyongyang have agreed to restart their nuclear dialogue aimed at dismantling the North's nuclear program and bringing a lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula by holding working-level talks possibly sometime in the next few weeks.
South Korea, which has played a role of "mediator and facilitator" between the U.S. and the North since the very beginning, was appearing to lose its identity in its North Korea policy because of the lack of progress in the denuclearization talks. President Moon, since taking office in 2017, has placed a top priority on achieving inter-Korean peace.
A year ago today, President Moon Jae-in agreed with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang to apply various measures in reducing military confrontation in the heavily fortified border area, advancing inter-Korean cultural exchanges and accelerating humanitarian cooperation.
At that time, general thoughts were that the inter-Korean relations would continue to improve and make smooth progress in a stable manner toward a permanent peace. Kim even promised during the Pyongyang summit to visit Seoul no later than the end of last year.
Since the summit in Hanoi this February, in which U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim failed to yield any results due to their stark differences in views on the methodology and timelines for denuclearization of the peninsula, the North has since stopped offering any visible gestures to fulfill its earlier promises included on the Pyongyang Declaration, and instead resumed its missile tests recently.
On the flip-side, concerns started surfacing over Seoul's continued "engagement-centric" rapprochement to Pyongyang even at a time when the latter is reviving its military provocations by firing a series of short-range missiles into the East Sea.
Despite the provocative gestures from the North, Seoul has been reluctant in sending "warning messages" to Pyongyang as the government doesn't want to lose the progress in inter-Korean relations.
Some critics and opposition parties also denounced the incumbent administration for generating only "half success" in advancing inter-Korean relations.
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