Incheon: South Korean President Lee Jae-myung has called on North Korea to consider enabling humanitarian exchanges between families separated by the Korean War, focusing on confirming the fate of relatives and allowing them to exchange letters. This appeal comes amid a stalemate in inter-Korean relations, with no significant progress in sight.

According to National Iraqi News Agency, since assuming office in June, President Lee has been striving to repair the strained ties between the two Koreas. However, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has dismissed the idea of dialogue, characterizing the relationship between the two nations as that of “two hostile states.”

During a meeting with elderly individuals who fled North Korea during the war, President Lee emphasized the importance of humanitarian measures. “I believe that allowing separated families to confirm the survival of their relatives, and at least to exchange letters, is the responsibility of political circles in the South and the North,” he stated at the Ganghwa Peace Observatory in Incheon.

President Lee further urged North Korea to consider these measures from a humanitarian perspective, despite the ongoing military and political confrontations. He expressed a preference for allowing separated families to meet and live together, but acknowledged the current hostility in inter-Korean relations makes swift progress unlikely.

Since the historic summit between their leaders in 2000, the two Koreas have facilitated 21 rounds of meetings, reuniting over 20,000 family members who had been separated since the war. Traditionally, reunions of separated families have been organized during Chuseok, a major holiday in both countries, as well as other significant national holidays. The last such reunions took place in 2018.