South Korea’s president announced today that he will offer Pyongyang a major aid package in exchange for denuclearization, a type of offer long despised by North Korea.
Yoon Sukyeol said denuclearization is “essential” for lasting peace on the peninsula, explaining that supplies include food and energy, but also infrastructure improvements such as ports, airports and hospitals.
The plan “will gradually improve North Korea’s economy and the living standards of its people significantly as the North stops developing its nuclear program and engages in a real and substantial denuclearization process,” Yoon said in a statement marking the anniversary of the end of Japanese colonial rule in 1945.
Last week, Pyongyang threatened to “wipe out” South Korean officials and accused Seoul of being behind the outbreak. Covid19 in the country.
In July, North Korean leader Kim Jongun said he was “ready to use its nuclear capabilities in the event of a war with the United States or South Korea.”
Regional experts see Pyongyang’s chances of accepting the offer mentioned in Yoon’s inaugural speech as slim as North Korea, which invests a large part of its gross domestic product in the weapons program, has long made it clear that it will not enter into such a deal.
North Korea has conducted a record series of weapons tests this year, including the launch of a fullrange ICBM, the first since 2017.
Washington and Seoul have repeatedly warned in recent months that North Korea is preparing for another nuclear test, which would be the seventh in its history.