N. Korea backs Panmunjeom Declaration

By Yi Whan-woo

North Korea’s Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation has called for prompt implementation of the declaration jointly announced by President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at their first summit on April 27.

The council made the call last week in its congratulatory message for the 100th anniversary of the birth of Moon Ik-hwan, a South Korean pastor and reunification activist. The anniversary commemoration will take place in Seoul on May 29.

The declaration, announced at the Panmunjeom truce village, aims for denuclearization and peace on the Korean Peninsula.

“Hoisting the Panmunjom Declaration ... as a new platform for the new era of independent unification, we should push to open a new era of peace, prosperity and unification,” the council said in the message delivered to its South Korean counterparts preparing for the anniversary of the pastor’s birth.

The South Korean side of the Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation said that since the summit on April 27 it had been in contact with its Pyongyang partners about resuming civic exchanges.