President Lee Jae-myung told a gathering of overseas Korean advisory council members on Tuesday that the door to inter-Korean engagement, however tightly bolted, would eventually yield to persistent effort. 'Keep knocking,' he said, 'and if you knock until it opens, it opens.'
Lee made the remarks at the 22nd Eurasian Regional Conference of the National Unification Advisory Council (NUAC), an advisory body to the presidency on unification policy, held at a resort in Yeongjong-do, the island off Incheon that houses the international airport. The event, running June 30 to July 3, was the first overseas NUAC regional conference since Lee's government took office, and drew roughly 1,000 advisory delegates — well above the 600-to-700 typical of past gatherings, according to Yonhap.
The 'keep knocking' formulation was not improvised. Lee told the audience he had used the same image with European leaders during a recent overseas trip, prompting them to note it echoed scripture. He took that recognition as confirmation the idea was, in his words, 'that much of a truth.'
Lee restated what he called his government's three standing commitments to Pyongyang: to respect the North Korean system, to rule out absorption-style reunification, and to refrain from all hostile acts. He said those promises would be kept without exception.
The goal, he argued, is not simply diplomatic goodwill. Replacing the 1953 armistice with a formal peace arrangement is, in his framing, an economic imperative as much as a security one. South Korea, he said, already leads global advanced industries despite the ever-present tension along the demilitarized zone. Full reconciliation, he contended, would unlock potential that decades of division have kept bottled up — what he called a 'Korea Premium era.'
Lee acknowledged that realizing peace on the Korean Peninsula is 'complex and difficult,' but said difficulty is not the same as impossibility. He pledged that even slow progress would not lead his government to quit. North Korea has maintained what analysts have described as a 'two hostile states' posture, cutting off most official communication with Seoul.
Earlier on Tuesday, Lee met former president Moon Jae-in for lunch at the presidential residence, where, according to presidential aide Hong Ik-pyo, Lee sought advice on inter-Korean affairs and Moon said he would do what he could to help.
About 1,000 NUAC delegates attended Tuesday's policy dialogue, where proposals included expanding inter-Korean exchange through sports and cultural programs. Unification Minister Chung Dong-yeong and Incheon Mayor Park Chan-dae were also present, according to Kookmin Ilbo.