President Lee Jae Myung vowed to respect North Korea's system, in the latest of Seoul's reconciliatory moves to resume inter-Korean dialogue, in his speech to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Korean Peninsula, Friday.
"We affirm our respect for the North’s current system, aver that we will not pursue any form of unification by absorption and assert that we have no intention of engaging in hostile acts," Lee said in the ceremony to commemorate the Liberation Day holiday at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in Seoul.
This effectively reverses disgraced former President Yoon Suk Yeol's bid in 2024 to achieve a unified Korean Peninsula. Yoon had said, "The freedom we enjoy must be extended to the frozen kingdom of the North."