Unification minister calls for China's cooperation in unification efforts

BEIJING, China (Yonhap) -- South Korea's much-wanted unification with North Korea will be more beneficial to China than the two remaining in a stable state of division, Seoul's unification minister said Tuesday in Beijing, calling for China's cooperation in unification efforts.

"China needs a proactive perception that unification of the Korean Peninsula will be a benefit to the country as well as a blessing to South Korea and East Asia," Minister Yu Woo-ik said in a speech at a forum in Beijing organized by South Korean think-tank Korea Institute for National Unification.

The widespread idea that only stably managing to keep the peninsula divided is beneficial to neighboring China is not worthwhile, Yu said, urging cooperation from China and other neighboring countries.

"The unification of the Korean Peninsula should surely be led by South and North Koreas themselves, but it can only be achieved smoothly and effectively when neighboring countries cooperate because they all have interlocking interests in it," he said.

As part of increasing efforts to unify with the North, Seoul will continue to push for denuclearization of the peninsula as well as raising unification funds and stepping up support for North Korean defectors settling in the South, the minister also noted.

The death of former North leader Kim Jong-il last December could have been a major turning point for the reclusive country but "the North failed to take courage for a change," Yu said, denouncing the communist country's inaction toward the world's negotiation efforts to help it discard its nuclear programs and open up to the international community.

"The South-North relations are now having ups and downs, but Seoul will not stop trying to talk to the country and leave the window for an opportunity open for the North," Yu said.

Also on Tuesday, Yu met with China's Foreign Affairs Minister Yang Jiechi in Beijing as part of his three-day visit to the country.

During their one-hour meeting, the ministers shared the opinion that South Korean and Chinese relations have improved extraordinarily over the past 20 years of diplomatic ties and they pledged to increase efforts to jointly safeguard the peace and stability of the peninsula and the North East Asian region, according to Seoul's Unification Ministry.

Yu highlighted Seoul's ever-increasing endeavor to unify the two Koreas, the ministry said. Yu is scheduled to return home later Tuesday. (Yonhap)