South Korea will seek to resume inter-Korean cooperation and intends to restore an agreement to suspend military activity along the border with North Korea, President Lee Jae Myung said on Friday.
In a speech to mark the 80th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule, Lee said he will seek to restore the so-called September 19 Military Agreement, which was signed at an inter-Korean summit in 2018 and was designed to de-escalate tension along their shared border.
Pyongyang later effectively tore up the agreement and said it would restore all military measures after Seoul suspended parts of the agreement amid a spike in tensions.
President Lee, who won a snap election in June, has sought to re-engage Pyongyang after a period of cross-border tension and shown a willingness to return to dialogue.
North Remains Suspicious
Meanwhile, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s influential sister said on Thursday that Pyongyang never dismantled its propaganda loudspeakers and has no plans to do so, dismissing South Korea’s belief in a positive response to its peace overtures as a mere “pipedream”.
Kim Yo Jong, who is a senior official in the North’s ruling Workers’ Party, also said a change made to the plan for annual joint military drills by South Korea and the United States was a “futile” move that does not change the allies’ hostile intent.
Kim, who officials and analysts believe speaks for her brother, has in recent weeks rebuffed moves taken by South Korea’s new liberal government aimed at easing tension between the two Koreas.
Policy Cannot Change
“I am confident that Seoul’s policy towards the DPRK remains unchanged and can never change,” Kim was quoted as saying by KCNA official news agency. DPRK is short for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s official name.
South Korea’s military has said it detected moves by the North’s military to dismantle some propaganda loudspeakers directed at the South, following similar moves by the South.
There has been cautious optimism in the South that the North may be responding positively to a policy by President Lee Jae Myung to engage Pyongyang after a period of cross-border tension and even show willingness to return to dialogue.
Kim Yo Jong also said North Korea will not be sitting down with the United States for dialogue, saying reports raising the possibilities of such a development were “false suppositions”.
(With inputs from Reuters)
