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SEOUL, Aug. 5 (Yonhap) -- Unification Minister Chung Dong-young on Wednesday proposed dropping the "main enemy" label for North Korea and referring to it by the name it calls itself, as part of efforts to seek peaceful coexistence with Pyongyang.

Chung made the proposal at a briefing at Cheong Wa Dae on his ministry's key policy agenda for the second half of the year.

He suggested the government tone down its language and refer to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, or Joson in Korean, as a way to help build mutual trust.

South Korea currently uses "North Korea" rather than its official name, as Seoul does not recognize the two Koreas as separate states under the 1991 Inter-Korean Basic Agreement.

At a media briefing a day earlier, Chung said South Korea needs to "put an end to the chilling situation in which the commander-in-chief labels North Korea as the main enemy," a reference to the precedent set by former President Yoon Suk Yeol. Chung proposed the government use "a threat" instead.

He said the matter was discussed at meetings of the National Security Council, where the defense ministry opposed his idea. The defense ministry is expected to again define North Korea as the South's enemy it in its first defense paper under the Lee administration, due to be released later this year.

On the broader policy agenda, the unification ministry laid out three principles for its "peaceful coexistence" initiative: building mutual respect and reciprocal cooperation, peaceful conflict resolution and crisis management, and a long-term push toward a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula and peace in Northeast Asia.

The approach revives a peace regime framework floated under former President Moon Jae-in that lost momentum after inter-Korean exchanges came to a standstill.

On security, the ministry wants to revive the Sept. 19 inter-Korean military tension reduction pact, signed by former President Moon and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in 2018, and use the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas in a peaceful manner.

On the North Korean nuclear issues, Chung reiterated the ministry's stance on seeking "realistic" solutions to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, focusing on halting North Korea's nuclear programs first.

"The framework of complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization (CVID), one pillar of policy for the past 25 years, has effectively collapsed," Chung said. "Simply repeating the outdated call for denuclearization first does nothing to change reality."

"There is no disagreement among government ministries over adopting a phased approach that begins with a 'freeze-first' step," he added.

Chung said he hoped for an inter-Korean summit within the first half of Lee's five-year term that ends in 2030 and pointed to the president's upcoming Aug. 15 Liberation Day speech as a potential breakthrough in inter-Korean dialogue.

As measures to lay the groundwork for inter-Korean exchange, the ministry mapped out a plan to restart construction next year on the South Korean section of the Gyeongwon railway line, connecting Seoul and Wonsan in the North, with a 2029 completion target. The construction has been suspended for the past decade as ties have deteriorated.

The ministry also plans to revise rules governing the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund, whose usage has languished at 2-3 percent. The revision would allow spending on peace economic zones, private unification projects and North Korea studies.

jaeyeon.woo@yna.co.kr

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