Unification Minister calls on North to make 'right' decision

Minister Kwon Young-se called on Kim Jong-un to abandon his nuclear weapons and missile programs, which are the targets of international sanctions that have banned the majority of the North’s export items.

Unification Minister Kwon Young-se speaks at a press conference marking the one-year anniversary of his appointment at the Office of Inter-Korean Dialogue in Jongno District, central Seoul, on Monday. [YONHAP]

Unification Minister Kwon Young-se on Monday called on North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to make the "right" decision regarding Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program in order to improve the livelihoods of people living under the regime.

Kwon made the remarks at a press conference marking the one-year anniversary of his appointment at the Office of Inter-Korean Dialogue in Jongno District, central Seoul.

In his speech, the unification minister said that current economic conditions in North Korea should give the regime’s leaders pause and make them “reflect upon themselves.”

“It has been more than 11 years since Chairman Kim Jong-un took power. He promised North Koreans that they would ‘never have to tighten their belts again’ and that they would ‘grow more prosperous by the day,’” the minister said, implying that the North Korean leader had failed to live up to his pledges.

Kwon called on Kim to abandon his nuclear weapons and missile programs, which are the targets of international sanctions that have banned the majority of the North’s export items, such as coal, seafood and laborers, and throttled its access to oil and materials needed for building advanced weapons.

“Chairman Kim must choose the path that fosters his people’s livelihoods and [inter-Korean] cooperation over the path of military provocations and isolation,” the minister said.

While acknowledging that inter-Korean relations remain tense, which he blamed on the North’s mounting military threats, Kwon also argued that the inter-Korean policy of the Yoon Suk Yeol administration had “laid the foundation for a sustainable [South Korean] policy approach toward North Korea and unification” and “inter-Korean relations based in principle and the ability to do and say what we believe in without walking on eggshells.”

The unification minister noted that since his appointment, the ministry had pursued the resolution of various inter-Korean issues, such as the release of South Korean prisoners of war, abductees and other detainees believed to have been held for decades in the North as well as reunions for families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War and subsequent hard division of the peninsula.

Kwon said that the Yoon administration would continue to pursue dialogue with Pyongyang in accordance with its so-called “Audacious Initiative” to “produce real results.”

The initiative, announced by the ministry in November last year, promises Pyongyang an unconditional partial lifting of sanctions if the regime returns to nuclear disarmament talks “with sincerity.”

The initiative entails a three-stage aid package to the North Korean regime to modernize its infrastructure and economy in return for completely giving up nuclear weapons.

“If the North comes back out to the negotiating table and implements actual denuclearization, we are ready to walk in step to drastically improve the North Korean economy and people’s livelihoods,” he said.

The minister’s remarks came after world leaders assembled in Hiroshima for the Group of Seven (G7) summit called on Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons program as well as “any further nuclear tests or launches that use ballistic missile technology” in a statement issued Friday.

The statement emphasized the group’s “unwavering commitment” to the goal of North Korea’s “complete, verifiable, and irreversible abandonment” of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction in accordance with relevant United Nations Security Council Resolutions.

The G7 statement further warned that “North Korea cannot and will never have the status of a nuclear-weapon state” under international law.

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