South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Tuesday reaffirmed his call for dialogue based on "firm deterrence" for peaceful coexistence with arch-rival North Korea and mutual prosperity on the Korean Peninsula, local media reported.
In a video message for the opening ceremony of the Seoul Defense Dialogue, Lee stressed the need for "stronger" security cooperation amid unprecedented and complex challenges in the international security environment, Yonhap News reported.
"We will unwaveringly continue efforts to achieve peaceful coexistence and shared prosperity on the Korean Peninsula through trust and dialogue based on firm deterrence," Lee said.
The Korean Peninsula has been divided since the Korean War of the 1950s, which ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty, which technically keeps the divided Koreas at war.
Seoul, Lee further said, is working to expand opportunities for dialogue on peace and prosperity through mutual respect and cooperation based on its independent defense capabilities.
"Confrontations and armed conflicts between countries are continuing across the world while the global nuclear nonproliferation regime that has underpinned global peace for decades is also being seriously undermined," he added.
Calling for a new model of security cooperation based on "strong deterrence, international norms and shared resilience," he observed that such challenges cannot be addressed by a single country.
Rapidly advancing technologies, including artificial intelligence, have become a source of new and "unpredictable" security threats, he maintained.
