Unification Minister Jeong Dong-young briefs President Lee Jae Myung at a ministerial work report held at Cheong Wa Dae's Yeongbingwan on Wednesday. [Yonhap]
Unification Minister Jeong Dong-young briefs President Lee Jae Myung at a ministerial work report held at Cheong Wa Dae's Yeongbingwan on Wednesday. [Yonhap]

The Ministry of Unification announced Wednesday it would put forward a "Korean Peninsula Peace Coexistence Development Vision" and pursue a "Peacemaker-Pacemaker+" initiative to prepare for shifting conditions on the peninsula. The ministry said it would work to replace confrontational and hate-inciting terms such as "main enemy" — starting with the two Koreas calling each other by name — and push for discussions on a new unification framework that excludes the absorption unification theory.

Unification Minister Jeong Dong-young unveiled the peace coexistence vision at the second-half ministerial work report held at Cheong Wa Dae on Wednesday morning. The plan centers on three core principles: mutual respect and reciprocal cooperation, peaceful conflict resolution and crisis management, and promotion of a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula and peace in Northeast Asia.

With a pacemaker mechanism already in operation at the summit level, the ministry plans to advance the initiative further on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, China, in November.

The ministry said it would use President Lee's Liberation Day address on Aug. 15 as an occasion to lay out the development vision in concrete terms, and would actively deploy a Korean Peninsula peace envoy to put the Peacemaker-Pacemaker+ initiative into full operation. It also said it would propose at the UN General Assembly that discussions on a Korean Peninsula peace regime begin.

The ministry also reaffirmed its commitment to pursuing preemptive tension-reduction measures to build inter-Korean trust, including restoring the Sept. 19 military agreement and promoting the peaceful use of the Demilitarized Zone.

As a practical step toward building a foundation for inter-Korean exchange, the ministry said it would resume the long-suspended restoration project for the southern section of the Gyeongwon Line, between Baengmagoji and Woljeong-ri, halted for the past decade. If the line were eventually extended to connect the northern section from Woljeong-ri to Pyeonggang, it would allow direct rail travel from Yongsan to the Wonsan Galma coastal area.

The ministry also said it would revise enforcement decrees to improve utilization of the inter-Korean cooperation fund, which had an average annual execution rate of only 2 to 3 percent. It plans to broaden the fund's scope to actively support areas including a peace economy special zone, revitalization of private-sector unification movements and restoration of the North Korean studies research ecosystem.

President Lee Jae Myung told the Unification Ministry that it "must continue pursuing policies of peace and coexistence, however difficult that may be."

"We fought a war with them, and they are also our kin," Lee said. "The relationship has had its ups and downs, but right now it is in a very bad state." He added that just as with personal relationships, there is an accumulation in government-to-government relations, and that having lived for so long under a strategy of hostility, contempt and confrontation makes improvement difficult.

And yet, he said, "if we take the attitude of 'I'll go my way and you go yours,' we will ultimately cause harm to the national community."

He also urged caution, noting that "there are aspects of this that can be politically exploited for partisan purposes, so we must be very careful. A single word can unintentionally become fodder for political conflict."


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