President Moon: "There Are Inter-Korean Cooperation Projects That Can Avoid UN Sanctions"

"Exemption Approval for Sanctions and Possibility of Non-Violation Projects"

President Moon Jae-in is answering reporters' questions at the New Year's press conference held at the Blue House Chunuchu-gwan on the 18th.

President Moon Jae-in stated on the 18th, "Because inter-Korean relations are within the framework of UN sanctions, there are clearly obstacles that prevent us from freely carrying out various cooperative projects between the South and the North," but he added, "There are also cooperative projects between the South and the North that can be carried out without violating sanctions or by obtaining exceptions to the sanctions."

At the New Year's press conference held at the Blue House Chuncheon Hall that day, President Moon said, "If the projects that can be carried out between the South and the North are implemented together as much as possible through dialogue, it will not only help the development of inter-Korean relations but also serve as a driving force to advance North Korea-US talks."

President Moon evaluated, "It is regrettable that North Korea-US talks did not progress further after the excellent agreement of the Singapore Declaration."

He said, "It is important to concretely implement the promises between North Korea and the US, but since these implementations cannot be achieved all at once overnight, they inevitably have to proceed step by step."

He continued, "I think the step-by-step progress should be a matter of matching the pace between the two sides (North Korea and the US) and giving and receiving accordingly," and added, "If the Biden administration, learning from the successes and failures of the Donald Trump administration, takes a new approach, I believe it can definitely achieve good results."

President Moon said, "I believe that Kim Jong-un, Chairman of the State Affairs Commission of North Korea, clearly has the will for peace, the will for dialogue, and the will for denuclearization." He emphasized, "What North Korea demands is to be assured of regime security from the US and for North Korea-US relations to be normalized."