The country’s Unification Ministry announced on Friday that South Korea will employ NGOs and international organizations to persuade Pyongyang to resume talks. It also mentioned that the embargo on North Korean media may be relaxed out of goodwill.
The South Korean government will “seek direct and indirect contact with North Korea through civic groups and international organizations in a bid to open up opportunities to improve strained inter-Korean ties,” according to the Unification Ministry, which is in charge of communicating with Pyongyang.
The Unification Ministry is reportedly planning to develop a more thorough policy, tentatively dubbed the New Future Initiative on Unification. One of the steps, according to the ministry, would be to permit readers to view the primary North Korean daily, Rodong Sinmun, offline only and not online. In South Korea, North Korean media is currently prohibited.
In 2019, after its talks with the US had failed, North Korea effectively stopped all of its collaboration with South Korea.
Unification Minister Kwon Young-se stated that it was crucial for North Korea to reengage in negotiations with sincerity. In spite of Seoul’s continued openness to reopening talks with Pyongyang, he said, his administration was not now considering giving North Korea a specific offer.
At the same time, the Unification Ministry was reported by the daily Kyunghyang Shinmun as stating that Seoul hoped to coerce its neighbor into dialogue by increasing diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea and by retaining the US alliance. According to Kwon, who was quoted by the publication, “We will create circumstances, in which North Korea…would have no alternative but to enter into conversation.”
Kim Yo-jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, dismissed Seoul’s offer of economic incentives in exchange for disarmament as “foolish” last year.
As Pyongyang increased its missile testing last year and codified the use of nuclear weapons in national law, there have been months of increased tensions on the Korean Peninsula. Meanwhile, Kim Jong-un urged an end to joint military exercises between the US and South Korea, which Pyongyang views as a threat to its security.
One of the drones, which had made it to the outskirts of Seoul, was among five that South Korea said its neighbor had flown across the border last month. Kim Ki-woong, the vice minister for rapprochement, stated on Sunday that the North Korean leadership “must immediately stop provocations that endanger the lives of our people and react to our administration’s invitations for discussions.”
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