In a written congratulatory message read by Hong Ik-pyo, the presidential senior secretary for political affairs, at an event at the National Assembly Members' Office Building in Seoul marking the eighth anniversary of the April 27 Panmunjom Declaration, Lee said the government will "take the steps we can take first" to restore inter-Korean trust and advance peace.
He added that he hopes North Korea will "trust the sincerity" of the government and respond.
Lee said ending the war, establishing a permanent peace regime, and achieving coexistence and shared prosperity between the two Koreas are the declaration's core spirit and "the future we must pursue." He urged efforts to ensure uncertainty and anxiety in the international situation, driven by the war in the Middle East, do not spill over to the peninsula, and to build a path where all people on the peninsula can live without fear of war.
He said the "people-sovereignty government" has made peaceful coexistence its top policy goal since taking office and has taken preemptive steps to rebuild trust. He said it has also made clear its principles of respecting the North's system, not pursuing unification by absorption, and refraining from any hostile acts.
Hong said the government's peaceful coexistence policy presented in early February was based on those principles.
"No matter how long the winter lasts, spring will come," Lee said, adding that if efforts toward peaceful coexistence and shared growth are built up "step by step," he firmly believes spring will return to the Korean Peninsula.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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