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President Moon Jae-in gives a speech on the Korean peninsula at old city hall in Berlin

On July 6, President Moon revealed the new administration's vision for peace on the Korean Peninsula during a speech he delivered at the Körber Foundation in Berlin. He laid out five policy directions for achieving permanent peace: a return to observing the stipulations of the June 15 Joint Declaration and the October 4 Declaration, denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula that guarantees the security of the North Korean regime, establishment of a system for maintaining permanent peace, drawing a new economic map of the Korean Peninsula, and the pursuit of exchange and cooperation in nonpolitical areas. He also sought to reassure the North Korean regime that the South does not wish for the collapse of North Korea and would not pursue any form of unification by absorption or attempt to achieve reunification by force.

Just two days before Moon's address, North Korea had test-fired an ICBM, prompting President Moon to emphasize that the need for dialogue is now more urgent than ever and to state that he is ready and willing to meet with Kim Jong-un at any time or place. Although the main focus of the president's address was on the long-term goals and direction of the government's North Korea policy, he also proposed four tasks for practice that should be carried out in the short term: divided family reunions and visits to ancestral graves around Chuseok (Oct. 4), participation by North Korea in the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, the halting of hostilities around the Military Demarcation Line, the resumption of inter-Korean dialogue including summits.

President Moon repeatedly urged the North to give up its nuclear program and promised that his government would abide by the demands North Korea expressed in the summit declarations of June 15 and October 4. He said that it is now North Korea's turn to respond.

Of all these proposals, divided family reunions would seem to be the thread that could lead to better relations between the South and the North. Several times in the past, family reunions have helped relieve the stalemate in North-South relations. International sanctions against North Korea are on the rise because of its missile tests, but family reunions are something that we can proceed with in spite of such sanctions and would enjoy international support. In any case, the average age of divided family members is now 81, and they have not seen their loved ones in 60 to 70 years. There is not much time left for them to be granted their last wish. Before the North makes further demands, we hope that it will allow family reunions to take place regardless of political or military considerations.

Describing his plan to draw a new economic map of the Korean Peninsula, President Moon said, "The severed inter-Korean railway will be connected again, with trains departing from Busan and Mokpo running through Pyongyang and Beijing and heading on toward Russia and Europe." Since the division of Korea, both South Korea and North Korea have become like island countries, even though they are situated on the Asian continent. Our field of vision has narrowed. Through exchange and communication, we need to reconfirm our status as part of that continent and open a new window of opportunity for peace, interrelations, and progress not only on our peninsula but all across northeast Asia. We appeal again to North Korea to join us in advancing toward a new world order by grabbing the hand that President Moon has extended.

Three months after President Kim Dae-jung's Berlin Declaration of March 2000, the first summit between South Korea and the North was held. We hope that President Moon's "Berlin Declaration" will again lead to rapprochement between the North and South.

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