Pyongyang Proposes Intra-Korean Meeting on Reunification

North Korea has proposed to hold an inter-Korean meeting on reunification, which would coincide with the 71st anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japanese colonial rule, local media reported Friday.

TOKYO (Sputnik) — Pyongyang addressed "all Koreans" and called on them to convene a grand national meeting on reunification, adding that the proposal was motivated by "a burning desire to improve inter-Korean relations and to fulfill the task of national reunification through joint efforts of all Koreans," according to the North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Korea came under the protectorate of Japan in the beginning of the 20th century, and was annexed by the empire in 1910. Since the mid-1930s, Japan has pursued a policy of assimilation of Korea, when a military-police system of violence and oppression took place.

Korea was liberated from the Japanese colonial rule on August 15, 1945 following great losses. Shortly after the Japanese Empire's defeat, Korea was divvied into two parts, as the United States and the Soviet Union signed an agreement on joint management of the country.

Since the end of the Korean War in 1953, two young states have divided by a demilitarized zone. The conflict is formally ongoing, as the sides signed an armistice, and not a peace treaty, at the end of the war.

The process towards a potential Korean reunification was started by the June 15, 2000 North–South Joint Declaration, but the relations between the two Koreas later deteriorated as the North declared itself a nuclear power in 2005, keeping the neighboring states at bay and ignoring the calls to refrain from what the South deemed provocations.

Last month, Pyongyang urged Seoul to accept its offer to hold military talks and called for joint steps to carry out measures for national unity, citing the need to ease tensions on the Korean peninsula. South Korea rejected the proposal, demanding "a real turn" toward denuclearization.