SEOUL, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Wednesday that his country will deepen trust with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) in the upcoming summit with top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un.
Moon made the remark during a ceremony to mark the 73rd anniversary of the Korean Peninsula's liberation from the 1910-45 Japanese colonization, according to the presidential Blue House.
After the high-level talks earlier this week, the two Koreas agreed to hold the third Moon-Kim summit in Pyongyang before the end of September. Moon and Kim met in April and May at the border village of Panmunjom, promising to meet in Pyongyang this fall.
Moon said he will take a dauntless step, through his summit with the DPRK leader, toward the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula as well as the war-ending declaration and peace treaty.
The peninsula remains in a technical state of war as the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.
Agreements can be sincerely implemented only after deep-rooted distrust is eliminated between Seoul and Pyongyang and between Pyongyang and Washington, Moon said.
Moon vowed to build deeper trust relations with the DPRK, while making best efforts to facilitate a denuclearization dialogue between Pyongyang and Washington.
The South Korean leader stressed that improved inter-Korean ties are not a by-product of the enhanced DPRK-U.S. relations, but an impetus for the peninsula's denuclearization, saying nuclear threats were eased when inter-Korean relations were good in the past.
Moon and Kim held their first summit on April 27 in Panmunjom, agreeing to the complete denuclearization. It was followed by the inter-Korean summit on May 26, eventually leading to the historic summit between the DPRK leader and U.S. President Donald Trump in Singapore on June 12.
"Peace is economy," said Moon to emphasize the significance for peace on the peninsula, based on which the two Koreas can deepen economic cooperation and create wealth and co-prosperity.
A full-scale economic cooperation, Moon said, can be launched between Seoul and Pyongyang only after peace is built on the peninsula together with the complete denuclearization.
Citing an estimate of state-run think tanks, Moon said the economic effect of inter-Korean economic cooperation is forecast to reach at least 170 trillion won (150 billion U.S. dollars) for the next 30 years.
The estimate was based on the resumption of the Kaesong Industrial Complex and the tour to Mount Kumgang as well as the launch of the inter-Korean railway connection and the natural resources development in some areas of the DPRK.
Working-level officials of the two Koreas made on-site inspections of the DPRK railways to modernize and eventually connect railways across the border as agreed upon in the Panmunjom Declaration, signed by Moon and Kim after their first summit at the border village inside the demilitarized zone (DMZ) dividing South Korea and the DPRK.
Moon proposed to Northeast Asian nations and the United States to jointly set up a so-called "East Asian Railroad Community" to connect railways across Northeast Asia via inter-Korean railroad links.
The Northeast Asian countries refer to South Korea, the DPRK, China, Russia, Japan and Mongolia.
Moon said the East Asian Railroad Community would lead to an energy and economy community in East Asia and eventually to a multilateral peace and security regime in Northeast Asia.
Moon said South Korea aimed to hold a ground-breaking ceremony to connect railways and roads across the inter-Korean border by the end of this year.
The inter-Korean industrial zone in the DPRK's border town of Kaesong was closed down by South Korea in February 2016 over Pyongyang'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 tourist was shot dead in July 2008 by a DPRK solider after allegedly venturing into an off-limit area.
