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On Sept. 16, Unification Minister Lee In-young holds a press conference in Panmunjom in front of a memorial stone marking the spot where South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un planted a tree together in April 2018. (photo pool)

South Korean Unification Minister Lee In-young said on Sept. 16 that he hopes the Inter-Korean Liaison Office and other inter-Korean channels will be quickly restored to enable candid dialogue to resume.

“South and North Korea need to continue making a joint effort to bring both leaders’ courageous decisions to fruition and to resume the inter-Korean timeline,” Lee said during a visit to Panmunjom, shortly before the second anniversary of the Pyongyang Joint Declaration, signed on Sept. 19, 2018.

“I think the flood damage suffered in North Korea is just as unfortunate as the damage suffered in South Korea. I hope we can actualize mutual solidarity and cooperation at an appropriate opportunity.”

“We need to respect North Korea’s strong determination to use its own resources to recover from flood and typhoon damage. Still, we must keep track of difficulties that can arise, for instance, from an altered harvest and help out when possible through cooperation with the international community,” Lee emphasized. His remarks suggest that Seoul could take action to provide North Korea with food aid if typhoon damage causes a poor harvest this fall.

Lee said that his visit to Panmunjom on Wednesday — his first since being appointed unification minister 52 days ago — represented “an attempt to assess the significance of the Pyongyang Joint Statement and the Comprehensive Military Agreement and to firmly convey our determination to implement those agreements.”

“[The South Korean government] is passing bills to deal with the issue of launching propaganda leaflets into North Korea in compliance with the inter-Korean agreement to refrain from mutually hostile activities. We are working to implement that agreement,” Lee also said.

Lee said it was “obviously regrettable” that North Korea had blown up the inter-Korean joint liaison office back in June. But he added that “generally speaking, I think the North Koreans are abiding by the military agreement,” citing North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s orders to suspend military action against the South as well as North Korea’s removal of loudspeakers it had been installing along the border.

“We intend to resume tours of Panmunjom as early as October, as soon as the COVID-19 situation clears up. A certain amount of humanitarian cooperation needs to take place each year in the areas of public health, medicine, disease control, climate, and the environment in order for South Korea, North Korea, and the US to gain confidence in each other,” Lee said.

Lee also said that South Korea “is prepared to immediately organize” video reunions and video letter exchanges for families separated by the Korean War “as soon as we get a positive response from North Korea.”

By Lee Je-hun, senior staff writer, and Joint Press Corps

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