President Lee Jae Myung’s E·N·D Initiative, the government’s first official policy on the Korean Peninsula and North Korea, is expected to face early criticism from North Korea on Wednesday. Although it includes peaceful messages promoting exchange and cooperation, North Korea is unlikely to accept it given its ultimate goal of denuclearization.
During his keynote address at the United Nations (UN) General Assembly on Tuesday, President Lee introduced the E·N·D Initiative, focusing on Exchange, Normalization, and Denuclearization. He declared that through this initiative, it aims to end the era of hostility and confrontation on the Korean Peninsula and usher in a new era of peaceful coexistence and shared growth.
Lee emphasized his commitment to fostering a peaceful atmosphere with North Korea by proposing three principles: respecting the other’s system, rejecting any form of forced unification, and refraining from hostile actions.
Addressing denuclearization, President Lee acknowledged its complexity, stating that recognizing that this issue cannot be resolved quickly, it is time to seek practical and rational solutions. It must begin with a halt to the enhancement of nuclear and missile capabilities, proceed to reduction, and ultimately achieve disposal. He urges the international community to collaborate on this pragmatic, phased approach. This reaffirmed his previously outlined three-stage denuclearization principle.
However, just two days before Lee’s UN speech, Kim Jong Un, General Secretary of North Korea’s Workers’ Party, had already rejected President Lee’s three-stage denuclearization principle.
In his address to the 13th session of the 14th Supreme People’s Assembly on September 20-21, Kim dismissed the current leader’s halt-reduce-denuclearize theory as merely a repetition of his predecessors’ efforts that once dreamed of disarming North Korea.
Kim emphatically stated that nuclear possession is enshrined in North Korea’s constitution, asserting, demanding denuclearization now is tantamount to asking them to violate the constitution, and he can state unequivocally that denuclearization will never, ever happen.
In this context, experts generally believe that North Korea will view President Lee’s UN speech as contradicting their supreme leader’s directives and therefore as unacceptable.
Historically, North Korea has responded unfavorably to the principles and doctrines of the South Korean government, often engaging in a form of power play by criticizing initial North Korean policies and positions.
In 2022, just four days after then-President Yoon Suk Yeol announced his Bold Initiative for North Korea during his Liberation Day speech, Kim Yo-jong, deputy director of the Workers’ Party, harshly criticized it as the height of foolishness, detached from reality.
When former President Moon Jae-in proposed the Berlin Initiative in July 2017, aimed at advancing the peace process on the Korean Peninsula, North Korea condemned it in a personal commentary in Rodong Sinmun, stating, one must clearly understand the true path to peace and unification on the Korean Peninsula.
In 2014, North Korea criticized former President Park Geun-hye’s Dresden Initiative (Three Proposals) through the Korean Central News Agency, describing it as a collection of trivial odds and ends. Rodong Sinmun further expressed its dissatisfaction, claiming that the South Korean leader’s unification initiative was an intolerable mockery and insult to their compatriots.
However, some analysts suggest that while North Korea may react strongly initially, it might adjust its stance in the medium to long term regarding President Lee’s practical and rational denuclearization approach. If a plan emerges that could solidify their nuclear status, they might consider entering into negotiations.
