Yoon administration to push inter-Korean info exchanges

Mutual information dissemination between the two Koreas will be a key agenda item of the Yoon Suk Yeol administration, the unification minister said Friday…

Unification Minister Kwon Young-se speaks with the press in Seoul on Friday. [YONHAP]

Mutual information dissemination between the two Koreas will be a key agenda item of the Yoon Suk Yeol administration, the unification minister said Friday.

Sharing with reporters the results of his meeting with Yoon earlier in the day, Unification Minister Kwon Young-se said, "It will be important to not only inform the international community clearly about the human rights situation in the North, but also to help the North Koreans know the reality themselves."

Kwon and other ministers, including the interior minister and the patriots and veterans affairs minister, met with Yoon earlier on Friday to brief him on the ministries’ plans and prospects for 2023.

In addition to emphasizing continued efforts to engage Pyongyang in denuclearization talks, Kwon departed from the usual Unification Ministry script to emphasize a new initiative.

“By sharing more information about North Korea with our citizens, we would be encouraging dissemination of information with North Koreans, because information today does not stay in one place,” Kwon told reporters.

As the first step, the ministry plans to regularly share with the public the contents of the Rodong Sinmun, the mouthpiece of North Korea's ruling party.

South Koreans are banned from accessing content published or aired by the North Korean regime.

Kwon said that such information exchanges between the two Koreas may encourage people to take more interest in unification possibilities.

The two Koreas have been divided since the Korean War ended 70 years ago with an armistice. Without a peace treaty, the two Koreas remain technically at war.

North Korea staged last year a record level of military provocations, launching over 90 ballistic and other missiles, including an intercontinental ballistic missile in November.

“We intend to create conditions in which North Korea, which has been ignoring the livelihood of its people and has continued to take risks, has no choice but to come to dialogue for denuclearization,” Kwon said.

“Now is the time to respond strongly based on the U.S.-Korea alliance, to make North Korea realize that it has nothing to gain by military provocations.”

Other agenda items Kwon highlighted included uniting different bureaus and agencies that support North Korean defectors in the South into a single entity under the ministry.

A family of defectors found dead in their home in Seoul in 2019 was suspected to have died of starvation.

“We will ensure that around 1,200 defector households reportedly facing low-income problems and other risks will receive constant attention and care,” Kwon said.

The ministry will also continue to call on Pyongyang to jointly host a meeting of divided families between the two Koreas.

Hosted for the first time in 2000, inter-Korean family reunions have ceased since 2018.

There were just over 42,000 surviving members of divided families as of last year, according to the Unification Ministry. Many are in their 80s or over.

“I have said time and again that I will jump at the first chance to host an inter-Korean dialogue on reunion of families,” Kwon said.

“That resolve still holds today. I believe it will depend on how much North Korea has the will to make it happen.”

BY ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]