SEOUL, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- The agreement between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the United States reached in Singapore on June 12 was totally different from former nuclear deals, a former unification minister of South Korea said Tuesday.
Jeong Se-hyun, chairman of the Institute for Peace and Cooperation and a former South Korean unification minister, made the remarks at a forum in central Seoul.
Under the June 12 joint statement, signed by top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump, the two leaders agreed to push for establishing diplomatic ties, building peace on the Korean Peninsula and completely denuclearizing the peninsula in tandem, Jeong said.
The former nuclear deals, Jeong said, demanded the DPRK's denuclearization before the United States compensates the DPRK in return for it.
Jeong said that if a deal is reached with the establishment of DPRK-U.S. diplomatic ties, the removal of military animosities and the denuclearization, peace will be settled on the peninsula with the complete breakup of the Cold War structure.
If the denuclearization process begins, the restoration of inter-Korean relations would be launched effectively, Jeong said.
He noted that South Korea needs to prepare for the resumption of the Kaesong Industrial Complex and the tour to Mount Kumgang while closely monitoring negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington
The inter-Korean industrial zone in the DPRK's border town of Kaesong was closed down by South Korea in February, 2016 over the DPRK's fourth nuclear test in the previous month.
The tourism project to the DPRK's scenic resort of Mount Kumgang, launched in 1998, has been suspended since a South Korean female tourist was shot dead in July, 2008 by a DPRK solider after allegedly venturing into an off-limit area.
