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| ▲ Unification Minister Kwon Young-se delivers his opening remarks at a meeting of the Unification Future Planning Committee in Seoul on May 3, 2023. (Yonhap) |
unification minister-N Korea
Unification Minister urges efforts to persuade N. Korea to make 'right' decision
By Lee Minji
SEOUL, May 3 (Yonhap) -- Unification Minister Kwon Young-se on Wednesday called for efforts to persuade North Korea to make the "right" decision for the sake of all members of the Korean Peninsula, although Pyongyang has shown little signs of resuming talks with Seoul and Washington.
Kwon made the remarks in a meeting of an advisory committee tasked with drawing up a new blueprint for Seoul's mid- and long-term unification policy amid North Korea's rapidly developing nuclear and missile threats.
"We need to encourage North Korea's positive change. The South and North can make a better future together," Kwon said in the meeting of the Unification Future Planning Committee.
"We need to urge and induce North Korea to make the right decision so that all members of the Korean Peninsula can feel safe and lead prosperous lives," he said.
Kwon's remarks were seen as reflecting the joint summit statement released by President Yoon Suk Yeol and U.S. President Joe Biden last week, which denounced the North's provocations while showing their commitment to "build a better future for all Korean people" and "support a unified Korean Peninsula that is free and at peace."
The unification ministry plans to release a draft of the blueprint, tentatively named the "New Future Initiative on Unification," later this month to flesh it out based on opinions from the global community and the general public.
The envisioned blueprint is one of the ministry's key policy goals aimed at laying the groundwork for peaceful unification based on freedom and the democratic values espoused by the Yoon administration.
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