Seoul, Sep 24 (EFE).- South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said Tuesday that the idea of ruling out reunification with North Korea and creating two independent states as some lawmakers have recently suggested is unconstitutional.
The Tuesday comment during a meeting of his cabinet, is apparently directed at comments recently made by Im Jeong-seok, former chief of staff of the liberal former President Moon Jae-in, and those who have supported him.
Im is a prominent student activist in the 1980s who for decades advocated for reunification was instrumental in organizing three summits between Moon and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. He advocated in a speech last week for amending articles in the constitution that call for achieving “peaceful unification” and accepting the existence of two separate countries.
“I cannot understand how those who have dedicated their entire lives to promoting reunification and who said that reunification was the main goal in their lives can suddenly change their position at the moment when North Korea brings up the notion of two states,” Yoon said. He was referring to the parliamentary session scheduled for Oct. 7 in Pyongyang.
In the session, North Korea “will deal with the issue of amending and supplementing” the constitution after Kim Jong-un asked to redefine national borders and discard the idea of peaceful reunification with South Korea, which he now describes as the “main enemy.”
“How can it be understood that those who at the time described others as opponents of unification for supporting their own points of view now make a 180-degree turn? It is an unconstitutional way of thinking,” Yoon said to his ministers. “Abandoning the objective of reunification would only increase tensions and confrontation between the two Koreas, which would worsen security on the Korean peninsula.”
The two countries, which emerged after the division of the peninsula at the end of World War II, remain technically at war, since the conflict that pitted them against each other between 1950 and 1953 ended with a ceasefire instead of a peace treaty. EFE asb/lds