Anchor: In the wake of a recent "tug-of-war" between the foreign ministry and unification ministry over North Korea policy, President Lee Jae Myung called for efforts to ease inter-Korean hostility and to rebuild trust on the Korean Peninsula.
Choi You Sun reports.

Report: President Lee Jae Myung urged the foreign ministry and unification ministry to ease inter-Korean hostilities and rebuild mutual trust with patience.

Lee said during the ministries' policy briefing on Friday that though the two Koreas have been engaging in border confrontations since the Korean War, the past few years mark the first time that three-layered barbed-wire fences have been built, and bridges disconnected, in the border area.

[Sound bite: President Lee Jae Myung, opening address at policy briefing (Korean-English)] 
“Our people are well aware of this—the two Koreas have been confronting each other across the military demarcation line since the end of the Korean War, but it is the first time since then that the North has put up three-layered barbed-wire fences, cut off roads and bridges and put up retaining walls. Why is that? We have been drilled and taught that the North is seeking to invade the South, that it is militarily targeting the South. There have been such opinions, and there seems to be some basis for such views, but…..”

Lee said that, though previous education and propaganda within the South have painted the North as hawkish, Pyongyang has installed such fences and walls out of fear of an invasion from Seoul.

The president said the two Koreas, which merely pretended to be enemies in the past, are now becoming true enemies via unnecessary tit-for-tat policies.

He said that political ambitions have made the North's declaration that the two Koreas are separate, hostile states a reality and that the unification ministry must lead efforts to divert policy toward coexistence and shared prosperity.

[Sound bite: President Lee Jae Myung, opening address at policy briefing (Korean-English)] 
“With patience, we should make our best effort preemptively and actively so that we can ease inter-Korean tensions and build trust. And that role, of course, falls to the Unification Ministry. I will probably say this during the policy briefing today. It is not an easy task, but it's hardly one we can give up on.”

Lee also instructed the foreign ministry to pursue peace on the Korean Peninsula and emphasized that the absence of enemies to fight constitutes security.

The briefing comes amid an alleged mismatch within the administration. 

Unification Minister Chung Dong-young has called for a dovish approach to Pyongyang's denuclearization and the downsizing of Seoul and Washington's joint military drills as leverage.

On the other side, those who value Seoul's alliance with Washington, most notably National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac, are advocating denuclearization and maintaining joint exercises at their current scale. 
Choi You Sun, KBS World Radio News.