South Korea’s Yoon makes fresh outreach to Kim Jong-un, says unification an ‘unfinished task’

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol offered aid, dialogue and a path to unification to North Korea, making new approaches to the neighbour that has berated him with insults and threatened to annihilate his government in Seoul.

In a speech on Thursday to mark end of Japanese colonial rule over the Korean peninsula in 1945, Yoon called unification an “unfinished task,” which he aims to pursue on a freedom-based path.

“Only by firmly defending our freedom can we become the leading force driving free and democratic unification,” Yoon said. He also pledged to raise awareness about human rights abuses in North Korea, which has bristled for years at criticism of its rights record.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un started the year with a strident tone by eliminating the concept of peaceful unification from his state’s national policy and abolishing laws for economic cooperation with South Korea, driving a wedge deeper between the neighbours.

This has led to some speculation that Kim has turned the corner on his bellicose outbursts and is readying for battle.

But Yoon reiterated he could offer rewards for moves to roll back Kim’s atomic ambitions, saying “we will begin political and economic cooperation the moment North Korea takes just one step toward denuclearisation.”

He also proposed setting up a so-called Inter-Korean Working Group that could take up issues ranging from relieving tensions to economic cooperation.