SEOUL — In a pivotal address marking Liberation Day, President Yoon Suk Yeol outlined a comprehensive vision for unifying the Korean Peninsula, emphasizing the expansion of freedom to North Korea and proposing a multifaceted dialogue with Pyongyang.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the proposal aims to establish the “Inter-Korean Working Group,” a new dialogue platform that would cover a broad range of issues including economic cooperation, cultural exchanges, and responses to disasters and climate change. This initiative reflects Yoon’s strategy to extend the freedoms enjoyed in South Korea to the North, where he described the conditions as a “frozen kingdom” deprived of basic human rights and suffering from poverty and starvation.
Yoon’s vision includes three main tasks: protecting South Korea from destabilizing misinformation, promoting human rights and access to external information in North Korea, and strengthening international alliances to support these efforts. He emphasized that only through a unified, free, and democratic nation can true liberation be achieved for the entire peninsula.
The president also reiterated his commitment to the “audacious initiative,” first unveiled two years ago, which promises substantial aid to North Korea in exchange for concrete steps toward denuclearization. Amid ongoing nuclear stalemates and heightened tensions, marked by North Korea’s recent provocations and South Korea’s resumed propaganda broadcasts, Yoon stressed the importance of dialogue to achieve significant improvements in inter-Korean relations.
Further, Yoon announced the creation of the North Korea Freedom and Human Rights Fund, aimed at supporting nongovernmental efforts to promote these values in North Korea. Despite previous rejections by the North Korean regime of humanitarian aid from the South, Yoon affirmed his administration’s continued commitment to offering support, particularly in light of recent flood damage in North Korea.
President Yoon’s speech highlights a strategic shift toward engaging North Korea with a combination of firm security measures and offers of cooperation, aiming to forge a path toward peaceful unification based on shared values of freedom and democracy.