EU backs Seoul's efforts to ease tensions on Korean Peninsula, Cheong Wa Dae says

European Council President Antonio Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen applaud after President Lee Jae Myung finishes his remarks at a joint press statement at the EU Council headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on June 10, local time. [Yonhap]
European Council President Antonio Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen applaud after President Lee Jae Myung finishes his remarks at a joint press statement at the EU Council headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on June 10, local time. [Yonhap]

Cheong Wa Dae said Saturday, local time, that the government would "consistently pursue its policy of peaceful coexistence on the Korean Peninsula with a long-term perspective," after North Korea lashed out at a joint South Korea-EU statement targeting Pyongyang, as President Lee Jae Myung continued his European tour.

"The EU also supports our government's policy for easing tensions and establishing peace on the Korean Peninsula," Cheong Wa Dae said in a notice released that day.

South Korea and the EU issued a joint statement following summit talks on June 10, strongly condemning North Korea for supporting Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine.

The statement condemned "the support of third parties, in particular North Korea, that enables the continuation of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine," and called on Russia and North Korea to "immediately cease all related activities and comply with the UN Charter and all relevant UN Security Council resolutions."

It also said North Korea "will never be recognized as a nuclear-weapon state under the NPT (Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons) and cannot hold any special status in that regard," and expressed "serious concern" over North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

In response, KCNA carried a statement Saturday from a spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry's Bureau 10, calling South Korea "an immutable enemy state that has made hostility and confrontation its very nature."

The statement added that South Korea's long-professed commitments to "respecting the system" and "not pursuing hostile acts" had been "nothing but a disguise," and called South Korea "the No. 1 hostile state that can never exist apart from its hostility toward our country."


sang@heraldcorp.com