Both the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the Republic of Korea should value the spirit of the agreement reached at the recent contact and advance inter-Korean relations, a senior DPRK official has said.
“It was very fortunate that the recent contact helped to defuse the danger of the touch-and-go situation … and offered an opportunity of a dramatic change in achieving peace, stability, reconciliation and cooperation between the North and the South,” Kim Yang Gon, secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea told the official KCNA news agency on Thursday.
“We are pleased over the fact that the North and the South sat face to face …, had an exhaustive discussion to reach an agreement on issues of common concern, thus opening up an epochal phase for turning misfortune into blessings in the North-South relations,” he added.
He stressed that both sides should value the spirit of the agreement and further develop inter-Korean relations in order to achieve reunification.
“It is of priority importance to keep afloat and develop the present trend of situation in which the North and the South put on track of detente with much effort,” he said.
He warned that both sides should be vigilant against forces that are unwilling to see the rapid development of inter-Korean relations.
The two sides need to look to the future and join hands to repair the ties instead of being bound to the past, he said, adding that the DPRK’s stand to bring about a change in North-South relations and open up a road to independent reunification is consistent.
The two sides reached an agreement Tuesday to defuse rising tensions on the peninsula following a 43-hour dialogue.
Attendants at the closed-door meeting were Kim Kwan-jin, chief security advisor to South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo on the South Korean side; Hwang Pyong So, top military aide to DPRK leader Kim Jong Un and director of the General Political Bureau of the Korean People’s Army, and Kim Yang Gon, on the DPRK side.
Under the six-point agreement, the two sides agreed to hold an inter-governmental dialogue in Pyongyang or Seoul at an earliest possible date to improve ties and to go ahead with talks and negotiations in various areas.
The two sides agreed to hold a working-level Red Cross contact in early September for the reunion of families separated by the 1950-1953 Korean War.
Seoul and Pyongyang also agreed to facilitate wide-ranging private-sector exchanges.
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