Yoon expected to unveil new unification vision in Liberation Day speech

President Yoon Suk Yeol is expected to unveil the government’s new vision for unification between the two Koreas when he addresses the nation on Liberation Day later this month, ruling party officials said Wednesday.

Yoon plans to lay out the initiative during his speech next Thursday in an update to the National Community Unification Formula, South Korea’s official unification vision unveiled in August 1994 under the administration of late President Kim Young-sam, according to the officials.

The unification ministry earlier said it will draw up a new unification vision based on the principle of liberal democracy.

The move comes amid increasingly strained cross-border ties as North Korea continues to press ahead with weapons tests, while leader Kim Jong-un has vowed not to seek reconciliation and unification with the South.

In his speech, Yoon is expected to emphasize North Korean people’s human rights, freedom and prosperity. In a speech last month, he said solving the North Korean human rights issue would be an important foundation for peace on the Korean Peninsula and a unified Korea.

He is also expected to send a message to Japan and touch on trilateral cooperation between Seoul, Washington and Tokyo.