Senior official reaffirms no unification by absorption, no hostile acts toward N. Korea

Vice Unification Minister Kim Nam-jung, center, poses for a photo with border residents and other attendees during an event at Camp Greaves, a former U.S. military base turned field trip site just below the Demilitarized Zone in the western border city of Paju, Gyeonggi Province, Monday. Yonhap

South Korea will pursue neither unification by absorption nor any hostile acts toward North Korea, the vice unification minister said Monday, reaffirming the policy of President Lee Jae Myung's government of building peace on the Korean Peninsula.

Vice Unification Minister Kim Nam-jung made the remarks during a meeting with residents of border areas at Camp Greaves, a former U.S. military base-turned-field-trip site in the western border city of Paju, Gyeonggi Province, just below the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas.

"To achieve a peaceful Korean Peninsula without the need for conflict, the Lee Jae Myung government will recognize and respect the North Korean system and will neither pursue unification by absorption nor engage in any forms of hostile acts," Kim said.

The vice minister said inter-Korean relations deteriorated abnormally under the previous Yoon Suk Yeol government, adding that anti-Pyongyang leaflet campaigns at the border, as well as North Korea's retaliatory release of trash-carrying balloons and blaring of loud noise, have caused damage to border areas during the period.

"The fundamental solution to alleviating the suffering from the division is establishing peace on the Korean Peninsula," Kim said, emphasizing that now is a crucial time for the two Koreas to return to dialogue and calling on Pyongyang to respond to Seoul's efforts for peace.