South Korean President Lee Jae-myung has called for dialogue with North Korea to ensure peaceful coexistence. Speaking Saturday, he said Seoul would take necessary security measures to prevent conflict and called for replacing the existing armistice with a formal peace framework on the Korean Peninsula.
In a speech marking the anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule, Lee said the two Koreas should sit down for talks on peaceful coexistence. He called for dialogue among North Korea and relevant parties to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War.
The war ended with an armistice, but no formal peace treaty was ever signed.
Lee said negotiations could also explore effective measures to limit Pyongyang’s nuclear capabilities. He added that Seoul would take preemptive and sustained steps to ease tensions and prevent the conflict from spreading further, building multiple layers of security measures.
The call is a continuation of Lee’s pledge from last year, when he spoke of respecting North Korea’s political and governance system and pursuing peaceful coexistence with Pyongyang.
Relations between the two Koreas remain deadlocked, however. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has abandoned Pyongyang’s long-standing policy of reunification, designated South Korea as North Korea’s “most hostile state,” and ordered the strengthening of border defenses.
North Korea has rejected Lee’s dialogue proposals, criticized Seoul’s plans to build a nuclear-powered submarine, and condemned joint US-South Korean military exercises as provocative.
According to The Hill, 76 years ago on June 25, 1950, soldiers of the communist Korean People’s Army launched a coordinated attack across the border into the Republic of Korea. Backed by Soviet-made tanks and warplanes, the forces advanced rapidly against an unprepared South Korean military. Seoul fell within three days, and then-President Syngman Rhee established a temporary capital in the coastal city of Busan.
The Korean War has never been formally concluded. The July 27, 1953, armistice suspended the fighting, but the conflict remains legally unresolved. The two Koreas remain divided by a 160-mile demilitarized zone patrolled by approximately two million troops.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report