South Korea’s President Calls For Talks With North Korea To Replace Armistice With Peace Agreement

Korea JoongAng Daily

President Lee Jae Myung speaks at 81st Liberation Day celebrations.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Saturday called for dialogue with North Korea to promote peaceful coexistence, saying Seoul would seek safeguards to prevent conflict and work towards replacing the Korean Peninsula’s armistice with a “peace regime”.

Speaking in a speech marking the anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule, Lee said the two Koreas should come together to discuss ways to coexist peacefully.

He urged North Korea and other relevant parties to resume dialogue aimed at formally ending the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty. He also said discussions could explore practical measures to reduce the threat posed by Pyongyang’s nuclear capabilities.

Lee said Seoul would take proactive and sustained steps to ease tensions and establish multiple safeguards to prevent disputes from escalating into conflict.

His latest appeal builds on a pledge he made last year to respect North Korea’s political system and pursue peaceful coexistence with Pyongyang.

Relations between the two Koreas remain strained. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has abandoned Pyongyang’s long-standing policy of seeking reunification with the South, labelled it the country’s most hostile state and ordered stronger defences along the border.

Pyongyang has rejected Lee’s overtures, criticised Seoul’s plans to acquire nuclear-powered submarines and condemned joint US-South Korean military exercises as provocative.

On relations with Japan, Lee called for South Korea to confront the legacy of the past while looking towards the future, saying he hoped the two countries could begin a new 60-year era of peace and prosperity as “close neighbours”.

Source: Reuters



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