Unification ministry vows to press on with peace drive despite Pyongyang's rebuffs
Yoon Min-ho, spokesman for the unification ministry, speaks at a regular briefing at the government complex in Seoul on June 8. Yonhap
The unification ministry said Monday it remains committed to respecting the North Korean regime and will not engage in hostile acts, after North Korea slammed South Korea's peaceful coexistence policy as a disguise of peace.
"The unification ministry will unwaveringly proceed with measures to rebuild inter-Korean trust in support of President Lee Jae Myung's commitment to peace," Yoon Min-ho, the ministry's spokesman, said at a regular press briefing.
He cited a string of goodwill gestures as evidence of Seoul's sincerity, including halting loudspeaker broadcasts along the border and moving quickly to express regret over drone flights into the North.
"These reflect Seoul's resolve for peaceful coexistence," he said.
The remarks came after a weekend of sharp accusations from Pyongyang.
North Korea on Saturday lashed out at Seoul over its denuclearization goal, declaring South Korea is "an invariable enemy state obsessed with hostility and confrontation." The outburst came after South Korea and the European Union jointly condemned Pyongyang's military cooperation with Russia and its nuclear program on Wednesday.
It accused Lee of dropping "the bothersome mask of 'peace'" and naming South Korea its "first enemy state."
Pyongyang kept up the pressure Sunday, declaring denuclearization "an irreversibly finalized matter," after Seoul and Washington reaffirmed their shared denuclearization goal at a bilateral Nuclear Consultative Group meeting Thursday.
Speaking at a Mass at the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls in Rome, President Lee said he believes the "ember of hope" for reviving dialogue and cooperation with North Korea still glows, and invoked the inter-Korean joint summit declaration of June 15, 2000, as proof that the two Koreas had once found a way through.
Unification Minister Chung Dong-young marked the anniversary on Facebook on Monday, acknowledging the "chilling silence" greeting Seoul's overtures. But he refused to accept it as final.
"Just before the dawn is the darkest," he wrote. "I will endure and work to open a road of prosperity based on peaceful coexistence stripped of hostility."