Efforts to normalize North Korea - South Korea relations bear first fruit

North Korea has consistently advocated dialogue and cooperation on the Korean Peninsula, “showing maximum restraint in response to hostile actions,” the North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a commentary published on Tuesday. It says that the efforts to normalize inter-Korean relations “bear first fruit.” Thus, according to KCNA, agreements on the resumption of the operation on September 16 of the joint industrial complex in Kaesong, as well as on meetings of the family members and relatives separated by the Korean War 1950-1953, have been reached. The DPRK government “is taking steps to create a situation on the peninsula favourable for the achievement of a lasting peace and reunification of the motherland.” The agency names among the important initiatives of the DPRK government the proposal to replace the armistice agreement that ended the three-year armed conflict on the peninsula with “a permanent peacekeeping mechanism.” The commentary emphasizes that the differences in the social and ideological systems in the North and South of the peninsula should not be a cause for confrontation, which is contrary to the interests of the Korean nation. “The Koreans, a homogeneous nation, have been forced by outside forces to live separated into the North and the South for more than half a century with differing ideologies and social systems. But, this cannot be a ground for them to stand in confrontation. This is the position of the DPRK,” the commentary says. The agency stresses it is possible to overcome the crisis in the relations between the North and the South based “on the 2000 and 2007 declarations,” which laid the foundation for national reconciliation. In North Korea these documents are regarded as “historic milestones towards achieving the unification of the country for change in the destiny of the Korean people.” The DPRK central newspaper Rodong Sinmun emphasizes that only through dialogue and cooperation “it is possible to get rid of distrust in inter-Korean relations, promote restoration of broken national ties and help achieve unity and reunification of the motherland.” The publication suggests that the dialogue, called upon to promote prosperity of the entire Korean nation,” meets the interests of both sides. “Therefore, North Korea and South Korea should not miss the recently emerged opportunity for dialogue and cooperation,” the newspaper writes, expressing the opinion of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK).