The Unification Ministry said that adjusting the South Korea-U.S. combined exercises "could be discussed if conditions and circumstances allow."
At a regular briefing on the 8th, Unification Ministry Spokesperson Yoon Min-ho answered this way to a question asking whether the ministry is consulting with other agencies on the issue of adjusting the combined exercises.
As Minister Chung Dong-young said last month that "we cannot move toward U.S.-North Korea talks while conducting South Korea-U.S. military exercises. Adjustment is inevitable," the South Korea-U.S. combined exercises have emerged as a card to resume dialogue with North Korea.
Regarding National Security Office chief Wi Sung-lac's remark the previous day that "we are not directly considering the South Korea-U.S. combined exercises as a card to push for denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," he only said, "The combined exercises carry important implications."
Spokesperson Yoon Min-ho, when asked whether the phrase "a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula" replaces "denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," recalled that President Lee Jae-myung made a related remark and only said, "The meaning is not significantly different."
On Feb. 2, in a speech at the inauguration ceremony of the 22nd Peaceful Unification Advisory Council (PUAC), the president said, "We will continue efforts to end the state of war on the Korean Peninsula and to settle peace by pursuing a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula."