Yoon: "North Korea Attempts to Undermine Alliance and Cooperation... A Means to Support Nuclear and Missile Regime" (Comprehensive)

Yoon Presides Over Democratic Peace Advisory Council Plenary Meeting
"True Peace Built Through Overwhelming Power and Will"

President Yoon Suk-yeol criticized North Korea, which recently launched so-called military reconnaissance satellites, on the 28th, saying, "They are trying to offset South Korea's modernized non-nuclear military power with nuclear weapons and missiles, threatening to use nuclear force to undermine the security will of our people and disrupt alliances and cooperation. This is absurd."

In his opening remarks at the plenary meeting of the National Unification Advisory Council held at Kintex in Ilsan that day, President Yoon stated, "North Korea's nuclear weapons and missiles are a means to rally forces that support the regime. The North Korean regime cannot give up its nuclear weapons because it believes that giving them up would ultimately endanger its dictatorial power."

The plenary meeting is a statutory meeting held biennially under Article 20 of the National Unification Advisory Council Act, and this was the first on-site event in six years. About 100 people attended the meeting, including approximately 10,000 advisory members of the 21st term, former and current senior vice chairpersons of the council, political and local government leaders.

President Yoon particularly warned, "True peace is built on overwhelming and strong power and a firm will to use such power at any time to protect oneself," adding, "Human history proves that peace relying on the goodwill of the other party is nothing but a dream and an illusion."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

His remarks are interpreted as criticism of the situation where the September 19 military agreement has become meaningless as North Korea recently launched military reconnaissance satellites and increased security threats against the South by deploying troops and heavy weapons to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) guard posts (GPs). It also appears to be a repeated criticism of the North Korea policy pursued by the previous Moon Jae-in administration.

Earlier, Kim Tae-hyo, First Deputy Director of the National Security Office, appeared on Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) on the afternoon of the 27th and, when asked by the host whether there were plans to restore our GPs, said, "Yes. If the other side is armed and threatening us while watching us closely from the guard posts, we cannot just stand still."

At the meeting, there was also a pledge announcement by Kim Hyuk, a standing committee member and defector who revealed the story of his cousin sister who was forcibly repatriated from China last October. Kim urged all advisory members to be vigilant about the reality of human rights abuses by the North Korean regime, using this forced repatriation incident involving defectors including his cousin as a turning point.

Meanwhile, Young Kim, a U.S. Republican Congresswoman, Ed Davey, leader of the UK Liberal Democrats, and Yona Martin, a Canadian Senator from British Columbia, conveyed through videos their hopes that the National Unification Advisory Council will become a communication channel connecting South Korea and the world for peace and unification on the Korean Peninsula.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.