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Chung Dong-young, South Korean Minister of Unification, speaks during the 2025 Global Korea Forum (GKF) at the Four Seasons Hotel in Gwanghwamun, Seoul, on September 18. / Source: Yonhap News

South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young on Thursday stressed the need to quickly resume dialogue with North Korea, warning that the longer the suspension continues, the stronger Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile capabilities will become.

Speaking at the 2025 Global Korea Forum (GKF) held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Gwanghwamun, Chung said, “Based on a sober assessment of North Korea’s improved strategic environment, its advancing nuclear and missile capabilities, and the clear weakening and limits of sanctions, we must push ahead with dialogue without delay.”

He pointed out that the number of North Korean nuclear weapons had risen from 20 in 2022—the first year of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration—to 50 last year. “Under the previous government, North Korea’s nuclear and missile capabilities expanded dramatically and became more sophisticated,” Chung said. He added that in 2023, Pyongyang enshrined its nuclear-armed status in the constitution, making the position irreversible.

Chung also noted North Korea’s deepening ties with Moscow and Beijing, highlighting Kim Jong-un’s recent appearance alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin during China’s Victory Day celebrations on September 3. He said the external strategic environment for North Korea’s nuclear and missile program was increasingly favorable.

He did not hold back criticism of the Yoon administration, saying its diplomacy and North Korea policy had been “a complete failure” that endangered South Korea. “North Korea continues to produce weaponized nuclear material and refine its delivery systems,” he said, pointing to visible progress in developing the multi-warhead, solid-fuel Hwasong-20 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

“Time is not on our side,” he warned, while emphasizing that both leaders at the Aug. 25 South Korea-U.S. summit agreed on the need to improve ties with Pyongyang. Chung recalled that U.S. President Donald Trump has also expressed his willingness to meet Kim Jong-un this year. “We must seize this opportunity so that a U.S.-North Korea summit can become the driving force for a new era of peace and coexistence on the Korean Peninsula, and a starting point for peace and stability in Northeast Asia,” he said.