SEOUL, April 18 (Xinhua) -- A former South Korean unification minister on Wednesday stressed the need to declare an end to military confrontation between the two Koreas at an upcoming summit with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) later this month.
Lee Jong-seok, who served in 2006 as the unification minister under former President Roh Moo-hyun, said at a forum in Seoul that the upcoming inter-Korean summit needs to bear fruits on the issue to build a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.
What must be done is to remove military confrontation between the two Koreas, Lee said.
The former minister accompanied former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung to Pyongyang for the first-ever inter-Korean summit in 2000.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in and top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un agreed to meet face-to-face on April 27 at the border village of Panmunjom.
The first and second inter-Korean summits were held in Pyongyang in 2000 and 2007 between South Korean former presidents Kim and Roh, and Kim Jong Il, the late DPRK leader and the father of current leader Kim Jong Un.
Lee, who is included in an elder advisory group for President Moon to prepare for the third inter-Korean summit, told the forum that South Korea needs to propose to the DPRK setting up representative offices both in Seoul and Pyongyang during the summit.
The Blue House of South Korea said Wednesday that it was reviewing way to turn the current armistice on the peninsula into a peace treaty at the upcoming summit.
The Korean Peninsula remains technically in a state of war as the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.
