ROK hopes for talks to denuclearize peninsula

SEOUL — The Republic of Korea said on Wednesday it planned to push for a complete denuclearization and a peace mechanism on the Korean Peninsula, resume economic cooperation with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and legalize inter-Korean agreement.

During his five-year term, President Moon Jae-in’s government will draw up comprehensive measures for negotiations on a denuclearized peninsula, with the aim of reaching an agreement for the complete denuclearization by 2020.

The plans are included in the five-year plan for state management under the new administration.

The ROK will push for the resumption of denuclearization dialogue, including the six-party talks that also involve the DPRK, China, the United States, Russia and Japan. The aid-for-denuclearization talks have been suspended since late 2008.

Seoul intends to achieve denuclearization by using all available options, including sanctions and dialogue, while deterring Pyongyang’s further provocations based on the firm ROK-US alliance and in cooperation with the international community.

The new direction also sought to resume economic cooperation with Pyongyang while pursuing a “new economic road map in the Korean Peninsula” as part of a strategy of economic growth.

As relations with Pyongyang improve, Seoul will consider the normalization of the Kaesong Industrial Complex and the resumption of Mount Kumgang tours, the plan shows.

The push for the new agreement would be made through bilateral cooperation when the right conditions are created, according to the five-year plan.

On Monday, Seoul offered to hold talks with Pyongyang about a reunion event for divided families as well as about military affairs, but the DPRK had yet to respond to the overtures.

Meanwhile, Seoul also plans to push for a rapid recovery of wartime operational control of its forces from the United States.

Seoul handed over its operational command to US forces after the three-year Korean War broke out in 1950. The country won back its peacetime operational control in 1994.