SEOUL, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- South Korea highly expected a "transformation" in relations with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), a senior South Korean government official said here on Friday.
After South Korean President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, the presidential Blue House of South Korea said in a statement that South Korea and the United States re-confirmed their will to end almost 70 years of hostile relations and settle a lasting peace regime in the Korean Peninsula by "transforming" relations with the DPRK.
It indicated high expectations of Seoul and Washington for the working-level denuclearization negotiations between the DPRK and the United States, which South Korea predicted to happen in coming weeks.
The word "transformation" means both Seoul and Washington being committed to transforming relations with the DPRK, the South Korean official said, emphasizing the importance of the use of that word both by the White House and the Blue House for the very first time.
"Both governments in Seoul and Washington are on the same page for transforming relations with Pyongyang," the official said, but he noted that the transformation would be made possible "should things go well" in the upcoming DPRK-U.S. denuclearization dialogues.
The second summit between top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un and Trump ended without any agreement in February at the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi, after their agreement in Singapore last June to the complete denuclearization of and the permanent peace settlement in the Korean Peninsula.
Kim and Trump held an impromptu meeting, joined by Moon after their closed-door dialogue, in June at the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom, agreeing to restart the working-level talks.
Earlier this month, Trump said he would be open to exploring a "new method" in talks with Pyongyang in response to the DPRK's call for a "new calculation method" acceptable to the Asian country.
The official noted that with high expectations for a dramatic change "hopefully" in the circumstances of the DPRK-U.S. relations, President Moon decided to attend the UN General Assembly instead of the prime minister who had been originally scheduled to visit New York for the UN session.
During the UN speech, Moon proposed to the international community "transforming" the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) into an international peace zone, and eventually working together with the DPRK to register the DMZ as a UNESCO World Heritage site once peace is established between the two sides.
The DMZ, which stretches 250 km from east to west and 4 km from north to south, has divided the peninsula since the 1950-53 Korean War ended with armistice that left the peninsula in a technical state of war.
The South Korean official said turning the DMZ into an international peace zone was also a proposal to the DPRK as it means both security guarantee and a reduced threat of conflict.
The comment indicated that once the DMZ is transformed into a peace zone, where international organizations are housed and tourists from around the world are allowed to travel, any armed conflict would be very hard to occur.
