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Unification Minister Chung Dong-young receives a photo of Heaven Lake on Mount Paektu during a meeting with inter-Korean economic cooperation, trade, and Mount Kumgang business groups at the Government Complex Seoul on August 12. / Source: Yonhap News

Unification Minister Chung Dong-young expressed optimism that North Korea would respond positively if South Korea takes the first step with respectful and constructive actions.

Speaking on August 12 at a meeting with inter-Korean economic cooperation, trade, and Mount Kumgang tourism business groups at the Government Complex Seoul, Chung said, “North Korea has confronted governments that treat them as enemies, talk of preemptive strikes, and promote collapse or absorption unification with a hardline stance. But if we approach them with good-faith measures that respect and acknowledge them, they will respond to us in kind.”

Chung stressed that the new administration’s North Korea policy should not be viewed as appeasement but as normalization measures aimed at establishing peace. “The term ‘appeasement’ implies weak actions in submission to threats,” he said. “Our policies are intended to return the abnormal conditions of the past three years to normal — I would appreciate it if you described them as normalization, stabilization, and trust-building measures.”

He also offered an apology to the business representatives. “I sincerely extend my condolences and, as a member of the government, feel deeply sorry,” Chung said. “You invested in North Korea and contributed to the cause of unification with a noble spirit, but in the end, your participation in these economic projects resulted in emotional, material damage and suffering. I truly regret that.”

Chung noted that if the Kaesong Industrial Complex was a gateway to a “Kaesong Peace City,” Mount Kumgang served as a stopover on the way to the Wonsan-Kalma tourist area. “If the Mount Kumgang tours had not been suspended, tourism — which is not subject to U.N. sanctions — could have continued, and the Korean Peninsula would look very different this summer with the opening of Wonsan-Kalma,” he said. “I know you may have felt much despair, but we must nurture the seeds of hope once again.”

Kim Ki-chang, head of the Korea Peninsula Trade and Investment Association, lamented, “Companies that invested in Mount Kumgang have been pioneers since the early 1990s. We invested everything, but then the government shut everything down overnight and abandoned us.”

Mount Kumgang tours have been suspended since July 11, 2008, the day after a South Korean tourist was shot dead by a North Korean soldier during the Lee Myung-bak administration.