Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung called Wednesday for the government to restore the hotline with North Korea to reduce tensions on the divided Korean Peninsula as a series of weapons tests and bellicose rhetoric raised concerns about war.
Lee, the chairman of the Democratic Party (DP), made the remark in a New Year’s press conference, where he also vowed to seize victory in the April general elections.
“We strongly condemn North Korea, which is continuing its armed provocations in the East Sea and the West Sea,” Lee said. “Chairman Kim Jong-un is throwing away the hopes of unification like an old shoe, and driving its people into misery even worse than the Cold War era.”
Lee said that the 1950 Korean War was an accumulated result of small conflicts along the inter-Korean border, as he urged the government to restore the communication channel between Seoul and Pyongyang to prevent history from repeating itself.