South Korean President Lee pledges to resolve North Korea abductee issue through dialogue

Seoul, June 28 (IANS) South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Sunday vowed to make efforts to resolve the issue of South Korean citizens abducted by North Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War through “dialogue and cooperation.”

“The government will not allow the issue of abductees to be buried in history,” Lee said in the message read by Vice Unification Minister Kim Nam-jung on his behalf at an event marking the Korean War Abductees Remembrance Day in Paju, north of Seoul.

“Through dialogue and cooperation, (the government) will seek to make sustained efforts to achieve a practical resolution,” Lee said, Yonhap News Agency reported.

Lee expressed regret that the family members left behind have missed the abductees held in North Korea for over 70 years since the Korean War, while vowing to shift the “hostility and confrontation” between the two Koreas to “peaceful coexistence.”

Sunday’s event marked the second of its kind since the remembrance day was designated by law in late 2024 to be held annually on June 28.

The event was attended by some 300 personnel, including the vice unification minister, family members of abductees and officials of related agencies.

On Friday, South Korea’s Unification Minister Chung Dong-young called for shifting away from an approach that sticks to denuclearisation as the sole solution to the North Korean nuclear issue, saying such a precondition has been one of the reasons for stalled diplomacy with Pyongyang.

Chung made the remarks in a keynote speech at a forum, co-hosted by Yonhap News Agency, pointing out that the lack of progress in nuclear diplomacy has only helped the North bolster its nuclear and weapons capabilities for the past three decades.

“As the past 30 years have shown, whenever peace talks were halted by the denuclearisation hurdle, North Korea used that time to further advance its nuclear capabilities,” Chung said at the Korean Peninsula Symposium.

“We must move away from the old notion that a peace regime can only be discussed after the North Korean nuclear issue is resolved… We need to pursue a phased and pragmatic solution. It is time for a paradigm shift,” he said.

Recalling major breakthroughs in nuclear diplomacy with Pyongyang in the past, Chung stressed the path toward peace opened up when relevant countries, including South Korea and the United States, sought to actively engage Pyongyang for dialogue.

Chung went on to highlight the need for a phased approach — halting and scaling down the North’s nuclear program before denuclearising — as a solution to the nuclear issue.

“A step-by-step process toward peaceful coexistence and denuclearisation should proceed in three stages — freeze, reduction and denuclearisation,” he said. “China, too, has expressed support for this pragmatic approach.”

Chung said this phased approach must begin with dialogue between the US and North Korea.

“As agreed in the 2018 Singapore summit between North Korea and the US, both sides should immediately resume talks to end mutual hostility and establish a new relationship,” he said.

“The resumption of US-North Korea dialogue will serve as a powerful catalyst for opening four-party talks among the US, China and the two Koreas, who are the key stakeholders in achieving lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula,” Chung added.

–IANS

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