North Korea calls for unification under two regimes

A joint conference of the government, political parties and organizations of North Korea was held at the People's Palace of Culture in Pyongyang on Wednesday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported Thursday. KCNA-Yonhap

By Jung Da-min

North Korea wants inter-Korean unification under the separate regimes in the North and the South, the country's national appeal to Koreans home and abroad reveals.

The annual appeal was adopted at the joint conference of the government, political parties and public organizations at the People's Palace of Culture in Pyongyang on Wednesday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Thursday.

It proposed a "peaceful reunification based on a nationwide agreement," while saying the different ideologies and systems in the North and the South should both be allowed under a unified Korea.

"It is necessary to pool [our] wisdom and efforts to make a nationwide proposal for reunification in line with the will and demand of the nation on a basis of recognizing ideologies and systems existing in the North and the South and allowing them," the appeal carried by KCNA read.

It called for a comprehensive expansion of inter-Korean exchanges, condemning the "cunning moves of outsiders to create mistrust" between the Koreas, in an apparent reference to international sanctions.

Officials from government, political parties and public organizations discuss how to carry through the tasks for national reunification set out by the country's leader Kim Jong-un in his New Year address. KCNA-Yonhap

North Korean state media have been calling for a resumption of inter-Korean businesses, such as the Kaeseong Industrial Complex and Mount Geumgang tourism, especially after Kim Jong-un's New Year speech, in which he expressed his firm willingness to resume them.

The appeal also called for the thorough implementation of joint declarations made last year at the three inter-Korean summits ― in April, May and September ― and large-scale eradication of military hostility between the Koreas.

"Let all of us further accelerate the nationwide advance for implementing the North-South declarations … and thus glorify this year as a historic one when another radical change is brought about in development of inter-Korean relations and accomplishment of the cause of national reunification," it read.

Conference attendees included Yang Hyong-sop, vice president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly (SPA); Kim Yong-chol, vice chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) Central Committee and director of the party's United Front Department (UFD), and Ro Tu-chol, vice premier and chairman of the State Planning Commission.

Other officials included members of the North Side Committee for Implementing the June 15 Joint Declaration, the Pan-National Alliance for Korea's Reunification, the Pan-National Alliance of Youth and Students for Korea's Reunification and the Consultative Council for National Reconciliation.