Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said President Lee Jae-myung and U.S. President Donald Trump form "the optimal leadership lineup to bring about a transition to a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula," adding that if talks between Washington and Pyongyang advance, "we should pursue normalization of ties between North Korea and the United States and between North Korea and Japan to complete cross-recognition on the Korean Peninsula."
Chung laid out four tasks for shifting to a peace regime on the peninsula at an academic conference titled "Three Blueprints for Peaceful Coexistence on the Korean Peninsula: The Journey to a Peace Regime," co-hosted by the Ministry of Unification and the East Asia Institute at the Westin Josun Seoul in central Seoul on the 17th. On the political front, he cited the establishment of a peace treaty. On diplomacy, he pointed to cross-recognition on the peninsula through normalization of North Korea-U.S. and North Korea-Japan relations, calling it "the unfinished task that remains after South Korea normalized ties with the Soviet Union and China." Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger proposed at the U.N. General Assembly in 1975 a framework of cross-recognition — normalization between North Korea and the United States and Japan, and between South Korea and China and the Soviet Union — as a way to build a peace regime on the peninsula. The view is that the foundation for a complete peace regime can be laid only once North Korea establishes ties with Washington and Tokyo.
On the military front, Chung said, "We could first halt the advancement of nuclear capability and draw up measures to build mutual trust," adding, "We could also discuss conventional arms control." On humanitarian and economic issues, he said, "We could discuss cooperation to overcome new crises such as climate change and artificial intelligence, along with humanitarian cooperation, and to build better lives."
Lee and Trump have both expressed strong willingness to engage in dialogue with North Korea. "Rather than first demanding concessions and change from North Korea, we must make clear that our commitment to mutual respect and an end to confrontation is not empty rhetoric," Chung said. "To shift toward a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula, we will do our utmost to create channels of inter-Korean communication, including opening a liaison line, and will pursue the peaceful use of border areas."
