Gov't Briefs Diplomats Concurrently Accredited to Both Koreas on North Korean Landmine Incident

▲ Briefing on Korean Peninsula situation for diplomatic corps in South Korea

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that it held a briefing on the Korean Peninsula situation for members of the diplomatic corps in South Korea belonging to the "Korean Peninsula Club" and the "Peace Club."

The Korean Peninsula Club is a consultative body between the Foreign Ministry and 20 diplomatic missions in South Korea whose ambassadors are concurrently accredited to North Korea, while the Peace Club refers to a consultative channel between the ministry and Seoul-based embassies of 20 countries that maintain resident diplomatic missions in Pyongyang.

The meeting was attended by the ambassadors to South Korea from Greece, New Zealand, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Slovakia, Ireland, Austria, Egypt, India, the Czech Republic, Portugal, Poland, Finland, and the European Union (EU).

Jeong Yeon-doo, head of the Office of Strategy and Intelligence and South Korea's chief nuclear envoy, explained that the government has consistently worked toward peaceful coexistence between the two Koreas and easing tensions on the Korean Peninsula, and introduced government initiatives, including President Lee Jae-myung's "Three Blueprints for Peaceful Coexistence on the Korean Peninsula."

Jeong added that while it is regrettable that North Korea has not yet responded to the government's efforts, South Korea will continue to pursue efforts to achieve peace on the Korean Peninsula through dialogue and diplomacy.

He also explained the government's position and the findings of a joint on-site investigation conducted by the military and the United Nations Command regarding the recent landmine explosion in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), emphasizing that inter-Korean communication is vital to preventing the recurrence of similar incidents and accidental clashes.

The diplomatic corps shared the view that dialogue and communication between the two Koreas are necessary to ease tensions, and positively evaluated the government's sincere efforts to achieve peaceful coexistence on the Korean Peninsula, according to the Foreign Ministry.

The Foreign Ministry stated, "This briefing served as an opportunity to share our government's North Korea policy and assessments of the Korean Peninsula situation with countries maintaining diplomatic points of contact with North Korea, and to discuss ways to cooperate for peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula."

(Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Yonhap News)

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