Foreign Minister Cho Hyun Raises Questions About the Realism of Jung Dong-young's North Korea Proposal

Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said that Unification Minister Jeong Dongyoung’s “Korean Peninsula Peaceful Coexistence Development Initiative” falls short of realism. In a briefing after the president’s 업무 report on diplomacy and security on the 5th, Minister Cho said the Unification Ministry’s initiative and its plan to pursue fourparty talks involving the two Koreas, the United States, and China were an idealistic approach. Minister Cho referred to existing examples of sixparty talks and threeparty and fourparty talks, explaining that the situation has not yet reached that stage. He also drew a line on the Unification Ministry’s proposed “peacemakerpacemaker+(plus)” plan, saying it was not a text agreed upon by the standing committee of the National Security Council. These remarks appear to reveal differences in stance between the Foreign Ministry and the Unification Ministry over North Korea policy. On the same day, President Lee Jaemyung also said that caution was needed regarding Minister Jeong’s proposal to change terminology, noting that even a single phrase could lead to political strife.