President Moon meets with veteran advisory group for inter-Korean summit preparation committee

Posted on : 2018-04-13 17:26 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
Former Unification Minister Lim Dong-won compares Moon’s approach to Kim Dae-jung administration
President Moon Jae-in greets members of a veteran advisory group for the inter-Korean summit preparation committee prior to a lunch meeting at the Blue House on Apr. 12. (Blue House Photo Pool)
President Moon Jae-in greets members of a veteran advisory group for the inter-Korean summit preparation committee prior to a lunch meeting at the Blue House on Apr. 12. (Blue House Photo Pool)

President Moon Jae-in invited Korea Peace Forum emeritus chairman Lim Dong-won and 20 other members of a veteran advisory group for the inter-Korean summit preparation committee to the Blue House on Apr. 12 for a lunch to hear their advice on preparations for the upcoming summit on Apr. 27.

“The inter-Korean summit and North Korea-US summit will represent an opportunity that is unlikely to happen again, a chance to move toward a path of the Korean Peninsula’s complete denuclearization, establishment of a permanent peace regime, and sustainable development of inter-Korean relations,” Moon predicted.

“Your collective experience and wisdom is all the more crucial in helping lead?? not only to the success of the inter-Korean summit, but also to the success of the North Korea-US summit,” he told the attendees in requesting their advice.

Lim, who was involved in a previous inter-Korean summit in 2000 as Minister of Unification for then-President Kim Dae-jung, recalled Moon’s remarks at a preparation committee meeting in March, when he stressed the need to “allow South and North to live peacefully without interfering with or hurting each other, prospering together whether they live together or separately.”

“This is similar to the way the Kim Dae-jung administration worked with its reconciliation and cooperation policy to achieve a situation where South and North peacefully coexisted, visiting, helping, and sharing with each other, and achieving something similar to economic, social, and cultural unification even if they were not politically unified,” Lim said.

“This is a miraculous opportunity, and I sincerely hope we can see it to achieve a historic shift,” he added.

Moon Chung-in, the President’s special advisor on unification, foreign affairs, and national security, suggested staging a joint press conference on the day of the inter-Korean summit as an opportunity for North Korea to step out as a member of the international community.

“I hope South and North can meet at the Davos Forum next January and create a major impact in the international economic arena,” Moon said.

JoongAng Ilbo reporter Kim Young-hee observed, “While the summit itself was seen as the achievement in the past, now it looks like we can speak of a great achievement simply in terms of bringing up [North Korea’s] commitment to denuclearization at the inter-Korean summit.”

The gathering also brought calls to use the summit as an opportunity not only for denuclearization but also measures to establish peace on the peninsula. Two former Ministers of Unification from the Roh Moo-hyun administration, Gyeonggi Province Education Superintendent Lee Jae-jung and Sejong Institute senior research fellow Lee Jong-seok, discussed declaring an end to the Korean War – currently in a state of armistice – and withdrawing weapons from Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) military units and establishing missions for Pyongyang and Seoul there instead.

Korea Peace Forum chairman Jeong Se-hyun noted, “Back during the preparations for past inter-Korean summits it was said that if the 40% of the importance lay in the summit itself, 60% was about the publicity. We also need to prepare for how to communicate [the summit’s content] to politicians, the press, and the public during the summit.”

Meanwhile, the Blue House established a general situation room for summit preparations the same day with governance situation room chief Yoon Geon-young serving as “control tower.” The general situation room’s membership includes protocol secretary Cho Han-ki, unification policy secretary Lee Deok-haeng, Blue House press center director Kwon Hyeok-ki, and Presidential Security Service chief Shin Yong-wook, as well as working-level officials from the Ministries of Unification and Foreign Affairs.

By Kim Bo-hyeop, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

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