South Korean President Yoon Seok-youl offered North Korea aid, dialogue and a path toward unification, taking a new approach toward a neighbor that has berated him for insults and threatened to destroy the regime in Seoul.
In a speech on Thursday marking the end of Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean peninsula in 1945, Yoon called unification an “unfinished task” and said he aimed to pursue it on a path based on freedom.
“Only by firmly safeguarding our freedom can we become a leading force in promoting free and democratic unification,” Yoon said. He also promised to raise awareness of human rights abuses. North Korea has long bristled at criticism of its human rights record.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un started the year with a hard-line stance, eliminating the concept of peaceful unification from state policy and repealing a law on economic cooperation with South Korea, further deepening the rift between the neighboring countries.
This has led to speculation that Kim Jong Un may have stopped his belligerent rhetoric and was preparing for battle.
But Yoon reiterated the possibility of offering rewards for any moves to roll back Kim’s nuclear ambitions, saying: “If North Korea takes even one step toward denuclearization, we will begin political and economic cooperation.”
He also proposed setting up a so-called North-South working group that could discuss a range of issues from de-escalation to economic cooperation.
Kim Jong Un escalated friction this month by saying he would deploy hundreds of new mobile missile launchers on the border capable of launching conventional or nuclear attacks on South Korea and U.S. military bases in South Korea.
North Korea has shown no signs it is open to talks, and the United States and South Korea say Kim is bolstering his position by providing military equipment to Russia in exchange for economic aid.
After North Korea was hit by severe floods since late July, Kim’s regime this month rejected an offer of humanitarian aid from Seoul, saying enemy is enemy.
“We will never stop offering humanitarian assistance, even if the North Korean regime rejects our offers again,” Yoon said.
The collapse of the Kim Jong-un regime or a peaceful reconciliation leading to the reunification of North and South Korea would represent a great opportunity for South Korea, but it would also entail enormous costs.
South Korea’s aging and shrinking population of 52 million could be revitalized by absorbing North Korea’s 26 million people, giving South Korean companies access to low-cost labor and opening new avenues for commerce, according to an analysis by Bloomberg Economics.
However, in a 2015 report, the National Assembly Budget Office said the South Korean government would need to spend 4,800 trillion won (US$3.45 trillion) over 50 years to raise North Korea’s income level to 66 percent of the average income in South Korea.
Aug. 15 marks the anniversary of the end of Japanese rule with the surrender of World War II, one of the few days marked by North and South Korea. Both sides criticized prominent Japanese politicians for visiting the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, where 14 Class A war criminals are enshrined among other war dead.
According to Kyodo News, three members of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s cabinet, Minister of State for Economic Security Takaichi Sanae, Minister of Defense Kihara Minoru and Minister of State for Economic Revitalization Shindo Yoshitaka, visited Yasukuni Shrine on Thursday.
Yasukuni Shrine is seen across Asia as a symbol of Japan’s militaristic past, and South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement it expressed disappointment at the government officials’ visit.
