SEOUL, July 16 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Thursday asked the parliament to legally formalize the agreements reached during the past inter-Korean summits.
"If irreversible progress in inter-Korean relations and peace on the Korean Peninsula can be guaranteed by the National Assembly, it will make the foundation for peace-building on the Korean Peninsula much stronger," Moon said in a speech to address the opening ceremony of the 21st National Assembly.
"Legally formalizing all the outcomes of previous inter-Korean summits and staging the first-ever inter-Korean parliamentary meeting are the fruits of the 21st National Assembly that I really look forward to seeing," he noted.
Moon held his first summit with Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) in April 2018 at the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom, announcing the Panmunjom Declaration after the summit.
Another meeting between the leaders of the two Koreas was held in September of the year, agreeing to a comprehensive military agreement to stop all hostile acts near the inter-Korean border.
"We must not halt our march towards peace. Dialogue is the only way to build trust between the two Koreas," Moon said.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said a week earlier that the United States was "very hopeful" to continue dialogue with the DPRK at various levels.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State and special envoy for DPRK Stephen Biegun said last week in Seoul that Washington was ready for talks with Pyongyang.
Denuclearization talks between Pyongyang and Washington have been stalled since the Hanoi summit between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump ended with no agreement in February 2019.
"When the two Koreas cooperate in trust, it will benefit both of us. Merely connecting the roads of the two Koreas to link them with the continent will bring enormous economic benefits to the two Koreas as a logistical hub," Moon said.
The two Koreas held a groundbreaking ceremony in December 2018 in the DPRK's border city of Kaesong to modernize and reconnect railways and roads across the inter-Korean border along the eastern and western peninsula, but construction works had yet to start due to international sanctions against Pyongyang.
Tensions escalated on the peninsula as the DPRK demolished the inter-Korean liaison office building in Kaesong last month in protest against anti-Pyongyang leaflets sent across the border by South Korean civic group activists, mostly defectors from the DPRK. Pyongyang has cut off all communication lines with Seoul. Enditem
