President Lee Jae Myung on Aug. 15 delivers a speech at a ceremony marking the 81th Liberation Day at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in Seoul's Jongno-gu District. (Cheong Wa Dae)

By Lee Ji Yae

President Lee Jae Myung has proposed that North Korea end its unnecessary hostility and begin direct dialogue to establish peaceful coexistence on the Korean Peninsula.

In a speech at an ceremony marking the 81st Liberation Day at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in Seoul's Jongno-gu District, he pledged that his administration will embark on a journey to end the Korean War and transform the unstable armistice system into a peace regime.

He urged both Koreas to set aside mutual threats to start talks to end "this long-running war."

President Lee added that this would allow the discussion of effective measures to halt the North's advancement of its nuclear capabilities.

The proposal builds on the principles of the North Korea policy that he announced in his Liberation Day speech last year to turn them into concrete actions.

In last year's address, he said, "We will not pursue any form of unification by absorption and assert that we have no intention of engaging in hostile acts."

Last year, President Lee stressed the need to end the era of confrontation and hostility to jointly usher in a new period of peaceful coexistence and shared growth on the peninsula.

"The spirit of pursuing peaceful unification while respecting and recognizing one another's system runs through all inter-Korean agreements, including the Agreement on Reconciliation, Non-aggression, and Exchanges and Cooperation between the South and the North, the June 15th South-North Joint Declaration, the October 4 Declaration of the Inter-Korean Summit in 2007, and the Panmunjom Declaration for Peace, Prosperity and Unification of the Korean Peninsula through to the Pyongyang Joint Declaration of September 2018," he added.

In this year's speech, President Lee reaffirmed his commitment to going beyond hostility and confrontation toward peaceful coexistence and shared prosperity.

He said that a Republic of Korea trapped in hostility and confrontation is absolutely not conducive to achieving the potential and dynamism of the people, pledging that his government will fulfill its role and responsibility to turn the energy of hostility and confrontation into a driving force for peaceful coexistence and shared prosperity.

ljyhwa@korea.kr