North Korea will be able to stand as a true member of the international community when it takes practical steps toward denuclearization and peace. When it does, South Korea will take the lead in securing the international community's support for active assistance in the North’s economic development.
SEOUL – On February 12, 2013, North Korea carried out its third nuclear test in the run-up to the inauguration of a new administration – my own – in the South. Around that time, the Presidential Transition Committee adopted the “Trust-Building Process on the Korean Peninsula” as a key policy of the new administration. Though the North’s nuclear test created pressure to revise the trust-building process, I made it clear that I would stay the course. Indeed, since its conception, the trust-building process has taken into account possible military provocations from North Korea, and is intended specifically to break the vicious cycle of provocations followed by compromise and rewards to placate tensions.
SEOUL – On February 12, 2013, North Korea carried out its third nuclear test in the run-up to the inauguration of a new administration – my own – in the South. Around that time, the Presidential Transition Committee adopted the “Trust-Building Process on the Korean Peninsula” as a key policy of the new administration. Though the North’s nuclear test created pressure to revise the trust-building process, I made it clear that I would stay the course. Indeed, since its conception, the trust-building process has taken into account possible military provocations from North Korea, and is intended specifically to break the vicious cycle of provocations followed by compromise and rewards to placate tensions.