Jeong Dongyoung Marks First Year in Office: "Peace Regime Must Be Established Through Peaceful Inter-State Relations"

Jeong Dongyoung, Minister of Unification, commemorated his first anniversary in office by urging staff, "It is the contemporary mission of the Ministry of Unification to open the door to a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula through peaceful inter-Korean relations oriented toward unification."

Jeong Dongyoung, Minister of Unification, is responding to reporters' questions regarding recent remarks about the location of North Korea's nuclear facilities as he enters the Government Seoul Building in Jongno-gu, Seoul on April 20, 2026. Photo by Jo Yongjun

On the 23rd, in his message titled "One Year in Office: A Letter to the Unification Family," Minister Jeong stated, "The Ministry of Unification needs to be proactive," emphasizing this point.

He continued, "The Ministry of Unification should not wait for favorable conditions to be created, but must actively work to create those conditions. If we can't run, we must walk, and if we can't walk, we must crawl—this is the determination and resolve required."

Minister Jeong remarked, "Over the past year, we have rebuilt an organization that had collapsed," and added, "This past year, we have completely dispelled the outdated and anachronistic shadow of the so-called 'march north for freedom' and firmly instilled within ourselves the vision of 'peaceful coexistence on the Korean Peninsula.'" He went on to say, "Normalizing the organization cannot be the end. We must boldly break down the old frameworks hardened by habit and the organizational culture that settles into complacency relying on seniority."

He further stated, "Going forward, all personnel and organizational operations will be based strictly on performance, capability, and passion," and urged, "Let us silently and confidently carry out the mission entrusted to us."

Minister Jeong described the past year as "a period during which we gave everything we had, striving with all our strength to shift the turbulent currents of hostility and confrontation toward the path of peace and coexistence." He added, "We must remember not the long years of hostility and confrontation, but rather the brief yet essential times of reconciliation, cooperation, peace, and coexistence that we must pursue."

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