The Unification Bridge in Paju, Gyeonggi Province can be seen in this 2025 file photo. Yonhap
The Lee Jae Myung government has shifted its focus to a peaceful "two-state" coexistence with North Korea, rather than pressure and confrontation, the unification ministry's white paper showed Monday, striking a markedly different tone from its predecessor.
The annual paper reflects the push by the Lee government, which took office in June last year, to repair the strained inter-Korean relationship based on building mutual trust.
The previous conservative Yoon Suk Yeol government sought to bring about change in North Korea through pressure and the influx of outside information.
The latest white paper laid out three key guiding principles: Seoul respects North Korea's system, does not pursue unification by absorption and does not engage in hostile activities.
Built on these principles, the government has framed its overarching policy as one of "peaceful coexistence and mutual growth on the Korean Peninsula."
In particular, regarding Pyongyang's "two hostile states" policy, the document specified the ministry's stance that highlights the need for a transition to a "peace-oriented two-state relationship" aimed at achieving unification.
At a year-end party meeting in December 2023, the North Korean leader declared inter-Korean relations as those between "two states hostile to each other" and has since pursued hostile policies toward Seoul.
"Considering the reality that the South and the North exist as two de facto states, we intend to develop inter-Korean relations into a relationship of peaceful coexistence while still aiming for unification," the ministry said.
Critics said the ministry's "peace-oriented two-state relationship" narrative runs counter to the long-held stance that inter-Korean ties are a "special relationship" tentatively formed in the process of seeking unification, not as state-to-state relations.
Source: Korea Times News
