Unification Minister Chung Dong-young speaks at a joint meeting on peace and safety of the border region at the Inter-Korean Conference Headquarters, Seoul, Feb. 26. Yonhap
The unification ministry said Friday it will pursue a "peace declaration" designed to express the political will to end the 1950-53 Korean War in a bid to seek the transition of the current armistice into a peace regime.
The ministry unveiled the plan in a report to the National Assembly as President Lee Jae Myung vowed all-out efforts to turn the armistice into a peace regime to ease inter-Korean tensions during his speech marking the 107th anniversary of the March 1 Independence Movement.
"The government will seek the 'peace declaration' that reflects the political will to end the Korean War and kick off discussions for the establishment of a peace regime, including the signing of a peace treaty," the ministry said in the report to the parliamentary committee on foreign affairs and unification.
The two Koreas are technically at war as the Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.
The ministry said the peace declaration is a multilateral political declaration that will involve South Korea and the signatories to the Armistice Agreement — the United States, North Korea and China — to express the will to end the war.
It will be similar to a declaration to formally end the war that was pursued under the 2017-22 administration of former liberal President Moon Jae-in.
Moon had pushed for the end-of-war declaration as an entry point to set in motion the North's denuclearization and bring lasting peace to the Korean Peninsula. But his initiative largely fizzled out as the 2019 Hanoi summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump ended without a deal.
Meanwhile, the unification ministry said North Korea is expected to take follow-up measures to last month's key party congress on the occasion of an annual combined springtime military exercise between Seoul and Washington and the launch of the North's 15th Supreme People's Assembly (SPA).
The government said the North is likely to issue statements denouncing the South and take military actions as Seoul and Washington will stage the Freedom Shield exercise from March 9-19.
Source: Korea Times News
