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Planned summit offers chance for progress on Korean peninsula, official tells UN

Planned summit offers chance for progress on Korean peninsula, official tells UN

A planned summit meeting next week bringing together leaders of the two Koreas offers the chance to take relations between them to a new level and consolidate peace on their shared peninsula, the Foreign Minister of the Republic of Korea told the United Nations General Assembly today.

A planned summit meeting next week bringing together leaders of the two Koreas offers the chance to take relations between them to a new level and consolidate peace on their shared peninsula, the Foreign Minister of the Republic of Korea told the United Nations General Assembly today.

Addressing the Assembly’s annual high-level debate, Song Min-soon said the leaders “will explore ways to increase mutual trust through political and military confidence-building measures, as well as ways to lay the groundwork for an eventual Inter-Korean Economic Community.”

Anticipating progress in the denuclearization of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), he said this would lead to a new peace regime replacing the half-century-old armistice on the peninsula.

He pointed out that this would have a beneficial effect far beyond the two countries. “A peace process on the Korean Peninsula will open the path to a regional security dialogue, and the resultant improvement in North-East Asian security will further strengthen regional and global cooperation for peace and security,” he said.

The ongoing Six-Party Talks, which bring together the two Koreas, the United States, the Russian Federation, China and Japan, offer “a real opportunity for change,” he added.

“We hope that our partners in this process will help us transform today’s uncertainty into tomorrow’s stability and prosperity.”