South ready to improve relations with North, but won't tolerate provocations: Unification Ministry

South Korea stands ready to improve relations with North Korea on the basis of reciprocity, but will not tolerate armed provocations by the regime "in any shape or form," according to a policy document released by the Unification Ministry on Friday.

Unification Minister Kwon Young-se addresses reporters at the Central Government Complex in Jongno District, central Seoul on Tuesday. [YONHAP]

South Korea stands ready to improve relations with North Korea on the basis of reciprocity, but will not tolerate armed provocations by the regime "in any shape or form," according to a new policy document released by the Unification Ministry on Friday.

The 2023 Unification White Paper by the ministry outlines President Yoon Suk Yeol’s so-called “Audacious Initiative,” which offers massive economic, agricultural and development aid to the impoverished North in return for permanent denuclearization, while also addressing longstanding concerns about the state of human rights under the regime and difficulties faced by North Korean defectors in South Korean society.

In the document, the Unification Ministry calls for better relations with Pyongyang based on mutual respect and “flexible” reciprocity and argues that the South does not seek to re-unify the peninsula by absorbing the North or initiating overthrow of its regime.

To deal with the nuclear-armed North, South Korea will not seek to only maintain a strong deterrence posture to ward off a potential attack, but also “create the right conditions” to dissuade the regime from contemplating use of its nuclear weapons, and eventually induce its return to dialogue, according to the white paper.

In its three-stage blueprint for carrying out Yoon’s Audacious Initiative, the ministry will first seek a “preliminary and comprehensive” agreement that lays out denuclearization goals and procedures in return for food aid, followed by a “practical” accord that involves military trust-building and entails medical, agricultural and modernization development aid.

The final stage, “complete denuclearization,” would be accompanied by the restarting of full-fledged inter-Korean economic exchanges and cooperation.

In the new white paper, the Unification Ministry also calls for measures to alleviate suffering caused by division of the peninsula, including the creation of a foundation to carry out reunions of families divided by the 1950-53 Korean War.

The ministry estimated that of the 133,675 South Koreans to date who have signed up for the chance to meet with relatives in the North, 91,051 have died, leaving 42,624 on the waitlist.

Over 65 percent of those remaining on the list are over 80 years old.

Family reunions have previously been carried out by the two Koreas’ respective Red Cross committees. The South selects participants for reunions through a lottery, while the North is suspected of selecting people based on their perceived loyalty to the regime.

Under the new white paper, the ministry will also expand existing programs and create new ones to support North Korean defectors in South Korea pursue education, job training and employment and resolve mental and physical health issues arising from their time in the North.

Gaps in Seoul’s social support for North Koreans who re-settle in the South came under intense scrutiny in 2019 after a 42-year-old North Korean woman and her six-year-old son were discovered to have starved to death in their apartment in southern Seoul.

The ministry also noted that the number of North Koreans who successfully defected to the South slightly increased to 67 in 2022 compared to 63 defectors in 2021, but that the figure remains well below the annual defector numbers before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020.

The ministry promised to expand support for South Korean companies that suffered losses due to the closure of the Kaesong Industrial Complex and the North's unauthorized use of South Korean machinery and equipment after the withdrawal of South Korean personnel from the zone.

While Seoul will seek to resolve inter-Korean issues through dialogue with Pyongyang, the ministry said that it will also seek to foster international cooperation and solidarity to dissuade the North from carrying out additional acts that could lead to a further deterioration in relations.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]