Unification minister calls on North to accept proposed working group to reduce tensions

Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho on Friday called on North Korea to accept President Yoon Suk Yeol's proposal to establish a working group to reduce tensions and resume communications over inter-Korean channels.

Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho speaks at a press briefing at the Central Government Complex in Jongno District, central Seoul, on Friday. [YONHAP]

Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho on Friday called on North Korea to accept President Yoon Suk Yeol's proposal to establish a working group to reduce tensions and resume communications over inter-Korean channels.

Speaking at a press conference held at the Central Government Complex in Jongno District, central Seoul, Kim reiterated Yoon’s offer of talks on “any issue,” including denuclearization, humanitarian aid and people-to-people exchanges.

“I call on North Korea to accept the president’s proposal to establish a channel to conduct inter-Korean talks,” Kim said, adding that the North should also reopen pre-existing communication lines, such as the inter-Korean liaison line and military hotlines, which it suspended last year.

During his Liberation Day speech on Thursday, Yoon said his government would pursue not only dialogue with Pyongyang, but also efforts to improve the human rights situation in the North.

Pyongyang has not yet responded to Yoon’s entreaties for dialogue, but it has reacted angrily in the past to criticism of its human rights record, which most international organizations have characterized as abysmal.

The North has launched thousands of trash-laden balloons across the demilitarized zone dividing the peninsula since late May to retaliate against balloons carrying anti-regime propaganda launched into its territory by activists based in the South.

Pyongyang’s state media reported on Friday that regime leader Kim Jong-un responded to a congratulatory message from Russian President Vladimir Putin marking the 79th anniversary of the end of Japan’s colonial occupation of the Korean Peninsula.

According to the North’s state-controlled Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Putin promised to continue implementing the strategic partnership treaty he signed with Kim in June, which includes a mutual defense clause.

In his response, Kim noted that the North and Russia “forged and deepened” their ties by fighting together against common enemies and that both countries would develop into “powerful states” in a “new multipolar world,” according to the KCNA.

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