South Korea's unification minister called for cooperation from neighboring powers on Monday for reunification efforts with North Korea, saying the unification of the Korean Peninsula will pave the way for world peace.
"Neighboring countries should depart from the old frame of thought regarding the unification of the Korean Peninsula," Unification Minister Yu Woo-ik said at a local conference in central Seoul.
"They should break out of the untested, passive notion that stable management of the division (of the Koreas) and maintenance of the status quo will contribute to their national interests," Yu said, calling for cooperation from neighboring powers including the U.S., China, Russia and Japan.
Only amicable joint efforts toward the reunification of the peninsula could bring about genuine development in the East Asian region and enhancement of national interests to each nation, he said.
The world can obtain a viable path to international conflict resolution only after it jointly achieves the reunification of the divided Koreas, he noted. "Cooperation from neighboring powers will result in the unification in a faster, more stable and effective way."
Yu said South Korea will continue to urge the North to denuclearize, referring to a core sticking point in the efforts among neighboring countries to bring Pyongyang to the negotiating table. "It is an unchangeable principle that the North should dump its nuclear development."
The North's new Kim Jong-un regime does not seem ready yet to change its stance, but Seoul will not wind down its efforts to communicate or keep preparing for unification, he said.
Speaking of a deepening chill in inter-Korean relations, Yu said, "It is a suffering unavoidable on the path toward reunification ... this painful time, I believe, may lead to sound relations and open up the path to unification." (Yonhap)