On October 4, 2007, then President Roh Moo-hyun held summit talks with then North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and issued a joint declaration for peace and prosperity and advancement of inter-Korean relations.
However marking the 10th summit anniversary, cross-border relations are at their lowest point, and a breakthrough appears elusive. On Wednesday, South Korea urged the North to follow a path of peace and respect inter-Korean agreements.
Although Seoul did not issue a specific anniversary statement, a Unification Ministry official said that South Korea respects previous inter-Korean agreements, including the 1972 joint declaration, the 1991 Inter-Korean Basic Agreement, the June 2000 joint declaration and the 2007 summit declaration.
The ministry called on Pyongyang to uphold all existing accords between the two Koreas and work to improve cross-border relations and advance peace on the Korean Peninsula.
However the North Korean ruling party's newspaper continued its verbal attack Wednesday, saying that South Korea and the U.S. were escalating the danger of a nuclear war on the peninsula.
In 2007, President Roh Moo-hyun visited Pyongyang for summit talks with Kim Jong-il.
A joint declaration issued at the time called for mutual respect between the two Koreas, easing of military tensions, establishing a permanent peace regime as well as economic cooperation.
The 2007 meeting was the second inter-Korean summit following the first summit in 2000.
However, inter-Korean ties thereafter suffered a setback when a South Korean tourist was shot dead at North Korea's Mount Geumgang in 2008 and also following the deadly sinking of the South Korean Navy's Cheonan vessel in 2010.
The Seoul government originally planned to mark the summit anniversary with joint inter-Korean civic events and family reunions.
Its plan then was to seek reconciliation with the North through Pyongyang's participation in next year's PyeongChang Winter Olympics.
President Moon Jae-in was none other than the presidential chief of staff at the time of the 2007 summit and was the chief coordinator of the summit event.
The current unification minister and spy agency chief also played key roles in realizing the summit declaration ten years ago.
However the government's plan to mark the tenth anniversary lost steam due to North Korea's continued provocations, including a nuclear test last month and multiple ballistic missile launches.