Photo : YONHAP News
President Yoon Suk Yeol has criticized a two-nation solution on the Korean Peninsula recently suggested by a former presidential chief of staff, calling it an “unconstitutional” idea abandoning the constitutional duty to promote peaceful unification.
Presiding over a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, the president said that he cannot understand some people who had devoted their entire lives to unification as if it were their lives’ goal suddenly changed their stances when North Korea claimed that the two Koreas are two nations.
Yoon said that suddenly, there are some voices in the political world proposing the nation don’t pursue unification, criticizing sudden changes in their position on unification.
Yoon made these remarks in an apparent response to Im Jong-seok, former presidential chief of staff under the former Moon Jae-in administration, who called on the country to move towards a more realistic approach of a two-nation solution.
During his keynote speech at the 6th anniversary of the September 19 Joint Declaration last week, Im also suggested the removal or revision to Article 3 from South Korea’s Constitution, which defines the nation’s territory as the Korean Peninsula and its adjacent islands. He also called for the abolition of the unification ministry.
Yoon blasted the idea of peaceful coexistence of the two Koreas as two nations, noting North Korea claims the two Koreas are two hostile states, threatening nuclear attack against the South.
Yoon added that if the nation abandons unification, inter-Korean conflict and confrontation will worsen and the security risk on the Korean Peninsula will also increase.