Unification minister marks 1 year in office, vows to build peace regime through 'two-state' approach

Unification Minister Jeong Dong-young said establishing a Korean Peninsula peace regime through a "peaceful two-state relationship oriented toward unification" is the Ministry of Unification's defining mission of the era.

Marking his first anniversary in office Wednesday, Jeong posted a message on the ministry's internal network titled "Our sincere efforts will ultimately bloom." In it, he said the past year had been one of spent effort to redirect the turbulent currents of hostility and confrontation toward peace and coexistence. "Our passionate efforts kept running into cold walls, but even as our expectations were dashed, we never let go of hope," he said.

He said the ministry's efforts to "thread the needle" were continuing even amid a deeply frustrating deadlock. "This was not a year that simply passed us by — it was a year in which we planted the seeds of thought and reflection toward a new inter-Korean relationship and a Korean Peninsula peace regime," he said. "I believe that deep beneath the frozen ground, the sprouts of peace are growing, slowly but surely."

Jeong urged his staff not to wait for conditions to improve but to work to create them. "Nothing happens if you don't move," he said. "The Ministry of Unification must run to create the conditions, not wait for them to form. We need the will and resolve to walk if we cannot run, and to crawl if we cannot walk."

He said the past year had been a time of diagnosing and reorganizing the ministry, and signaled that going forward, personnel and organizational decisions would be guided strictly by performance, competence and passion.

He closed by urging staff never to lose hope in history. "If we do not stop and give our sincere best, peace on the Korean Peninsula will ultimately bloom — like a spring that cannot be held back," he said.