President Lee Jae-myung stated on September 23 that "North and South Korea must move beyond hostility and confrontation to respect each other and engage in stable exchanges."
While on a visit to the United States, President Lee made these remarks through a representative, Jeong Dong-young, during the '4th Family Reunion Day Ceremony' held at The Plaza Hotel in Seoul.
He emphasized that "the issue of separated families is the foremost task that must be addressed by both North and South Korea," adding, "It has been eight years since the last reunion in 2018, and during that time, nearly half of the surviving separated family members have passed away without fulfilling their wishes to reunite."
Despite the deepening mistrust between the two Koreas, he assured that "our government will not abandon the path to peace and will steadily open the way for dialogue."
Additionally, he promised to systematically collect genetic information from separated families to ensure thorough preparations for future reunions and to preserve their life records, stating, "We will make the pain of division a memory that awakens the value of peace."
He also acknowledged the presence of over 40 separated family members from abroad at the event, saying, "We will embrace the feelings of those who have left their hometowns and families, living with longing in a foreign land for many years," and pledged to expand surveys on overseas separated families and listen to their voices.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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