이인영•박지원 공식 업무 시작...임종석 "남북 스스로 협력"<br /><br />Exactly 26 days after being appointed by President Moon Jae-in,... Seoul's new unification minister and head of the state intelligence agency on Wednesday embarked upon their new positions.<br />Kim Hyo-sun reports.<br />President Moon Jae-in's new national security team, reshuffled amid renewed tensions with North Korea,... began official work on Wednesday.<br />Earlier in the day, Moon presented letters of appointment to Unification Minister Lee In-young and Park Jie-won, who has been newly appointed to lead the National Intelligence Service.<br />President Moon expressed confidence in them,... saying Lee and Park will definitely carry out the historic tasks given to them.<br />To this, Lee said he will exert his utmost efforts to establish peace on the Korean peninsula before Moon finishes his term.<br />Park said he will make sure to revive the spirit of dialogue between the two Koreas and revamp the organization.<br />Im Jong-seok, former presidential chief of staff, who has been newly named as a special adviser for diplomatic and security affairs also began his new work on facilitating inter-Korean cooperation.<br />"We can only make decisions on our own on issues when there are more areas the two Koreas can do on their own and trust is rebuilt."<br />Pundits expect inter-Korean exchanges on humanitarian issues could be agreed soon if necessary conditions are met,... as Minister Lee has also stressed the importance of negotiations with Pyeongyang.<br />The North Korean regime, however,... has yet to respond to the suggestions made by Seoul on inter-Korean cooperation projects.<br />While all eyes are on when the South Korean government will engage in full-fledged dialogue with the North,... it's left to be seen how the latest return of a defector back to North Korea and the COVID-19 situation in the North will affect the inter-Korean relations going forward.<br />Kim Hyo-sun, Arirang News.<br />
