Presidential Office: "ASEAN Leaders Express Strong Support for Government's Korean Peninsula Policy"

President Lee Jae-myung is attending the ASEAN+3 Summit held at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre in Malaysia on the 27th. Photo by Yonhap News

The Presidential Office announced on the 27th that the member states of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) have "expressed strong support for the Lee Jae-myung administration's policy on the Korean Peninsula."

Kang Yoo-jung, spokesperson for the Presidential Office, made this statement during a briefing in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where the Korea-ASEAN Summit is currently being held.

Spokesperson Kang explained, "The leaders of each ASEAN country expressed hopes for upgrading the Korea-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement, cooperation on digital and climate change responses, infrastructure collaboration, expansion of cultural and people-to-people exchanges, support for nurturing talent, countering transnational crimes such as scams, and strengthening maritime security cooperation. They also expressed strong support for our government's policy on the Korean Peninsula."

According to Spokesperson Kang, in his closing remarks at the summit, President Lee stated, "Korea will work to build a solid institutional foundation to help ASEAN countries realize their dreams and strive to reduce development gaps among ASEAN nations." He added, "We will contribute to ASEAN's sustainable growth and make efforts to establish lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula."

When asked what kind of peace initiative President Lee had presented, Spokesperson Kang replied, "He spoke about restoring the broken trust between the two Koreas and making progress toward peace on the Korean Peninsula through step-by-step advancement of denuclearization."

In this regard, Spokesperson Kang added, "Essentially, it was the same as what was previously referred to as END, except he did not use the term itself." END stands for Exchange, Normalization, and Denuclearization, which is the policy framework for the Korean Peninsula previously outlined by President Lee.

Spokesperson Kang also predicted, "When the ASEAN statement is released, it is likely that ASEAN's support or agreement will be reflected in the statement."