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Declassified files show North Korea insisted on 'one Korea' in early 1990s talks

Published: 02 Sep. 2025, 14:38

This file photo captures the eighth round of high-level inter-Korean talks that took place in Pyongyang, North Korea, in September 1992. [YONHAP]

North Korea pressed for a "one Korea" approach during key inter-Korean talks in the early 1990s, declassified documents showed Tuesday, in stark contrast to its current stance labeling the two Koreas as separate states hostile to each other.

The details were revealed in the dossiers, released by the unification ministry on Tuesday, on the high-level inter-Korean talks that took place from September 1990 to the same month of 1992.

In particular, South and North Korea signed a landmark agreement on reconciliation, exchanges and cooperation between the two sides in 1991, known as the Basic Agreement.

Under the agreement, inter-Korean ties were designated as a "special relationship" tentatively formed in the process of seeking reunification, not as state-to-state relations.

During high-level talks, the North insisted on addressing the two sides as "one Korea," accusing South Korea of seeking to sow a permanent division of the Korean Peninsula after Seoul proposed including clauses acknowledging the two sides as separate states.

Yon Hyong-muk, then North Korean premier and chief negotiator for the talks, lashed out at the South, saying he "cannot but express astonishment" that the South is "openly trying to formalize inter-Korean ties as state-to-state relations" in the new agreement, the dossiers showed.

North Korea expressed strong opposition to using the official names of both sides in the agreement, but later conceded on the matter. The agreement carries the official names of both sides: the Republic of Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

In the follow-up talks after the agreement was signed in 1991, the North objected to Seoul's suggestion to establish permanent missions in Seoul and Pyongyang, arguing that this would undermine their relations and make them appear like a state-to-state relationship.

North Korea's stance at the time is clearly different from its current position, describing the South as a "primary enemy."

In late 2023, North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, defined inter-Korean relations as those between "two states hostile to each other," declaring that it would not seek unification with the South.

In the first round of inter-Korean dialogue in September 1990, the North proposed that the two sides join the United Nations under a single, joint membership, saying that they could not enter the organization as separate states.

During the talks in 1992, North Korea also strongly demanded the South send back Ri In-mo, an unconverted long-term prisoner, insisting that then-President Roh Tae-woo had an intent to do so, the documents showed.

However, the South's delegation refused to repatriate Ri, apparently under the discretion of the spy agency, which chose to disregard Roh's directive. It was later revealed that a senior spy agency official participating in the talks had fabricated a false directive to block the repatriation.

Ri returned to the North in March 1993 during the Kim Young-sam government.

Yonhap