ⓒYONHAP News

President Yoon Suk Yeol has offered a "bold initiative" to improve the North Korean economy and livelihood should the regime stop developing nuclear weapons and take practical steps toward denuclearization.

In his first speech marking Liberation Day since taking office in May, President Yoon said the North's denuclearization is essential for sustainable peace on the Korean Peninsula, in Northeast Asia and beyond.

The president specifically pledged large-scale food supply programs, support for electricity generation and transmission infrastructure, agricultural production technology, as well as the modernization of ports, airports and health care.

On Seoul-Tokyo relations, Yoon said while the nation had to escape Japan's political control to restore and protect liberty in the colonial era, the two sides are now neighboring partners that must jointly face challenges against civil liberty.

He then promised to uphold the 1998 Joint Declaration signed by former President Kim Dae-jung and former Japanese Prime Minister Keizō Obuchi which put forth a comprehensive vision for the future of bilateral relations, to resolve colonial-era issues and advance two-way ties.

Regarding the economy, Yoon pledged to restructure the public sector, and in better managing state finances, he promised to provide more support to socially vulnerable groups.

The president said he would inherit the spirit of the independence movement and pay the utmost respect to those who had sacrificed their lives for freedom and the independence of the country.

The ceremony marking 77 years of Korea's independence from Japanese colonial rule was held on Monday morning at the Yongsan Presidential Office, attended by 300 guests including independence fighters, their families, government officials, religious figures and members of the diplomatic corps. 

The event included, along with the president's speech, a celebratory performance and award ceremony.

On Friday, Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, strongly criticized Yoon’s ‘bold initiative’ toward Pyongyang, saying the North will not respond to it. 

In a statement posted on the Rodong Sinmun, the official mouthpiece of the ruling Workers’ Party, Kim dismissed Yoon’s initiative focused on economic benefits in return for denuclearization as “the height of absurdity,” ensuring her country will never deal with it. 

Kim claimed the initiative is not new but a copycat of a policy pursued under the Lee Myung-bak administration, which she said was deserted eventually as a byproduct of inter-Korean confrontation. 

She argued that the new South Korean initiative’s presumption of the North taking denuclearization measures is already wrong, adding the Yoon administration does not appear to know that. 

Kim also accused the South Korean leader of shamelessly plowing ahead with what she called a war rehearsal after proposing the initiative, apparently blaming the upcoming South Korea-U.S. joint military exercise, Ulchi Freedom Shield, set to begin next week.