Liberation from colonial rule celebrated

Both the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea have marked the 80th anniversary of the Korean Peninsula's liberation from Japan's colonial rule, with the ROK leader pledging to reduce bilateral tensions.

In a speech at a celebration event held at the Arch of Triumph Plaza in Pyongyang on Thursday, DPRK's top leader, Kim Jong-un, emphasized the DPRK's resistance against Japanese imperialism and the bloodshed endured to gain independence, and called for steadily and undauntedly overcoming the challenges facing the DPRK.

On Friday, ROK President Lee Jaemyung, in a speech marking the country's Liberation Day, said the ROK will take consistent measures to reduce tensions with the DPRK and restore the Sept 19 military agreement between the two sides to lower military tensions at the border.

The agreement was signed during the 2018 inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang. In June 2024, the ROK's then Yoon Suk-yeol government suspended the deal. "It is time to break free from outdated Cold War mentality and open a new era of peace on the Korean Peninsula," said Lee, at a ceremony held at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in Seoul.

Lee said his government respects the DPRK's current political system and will not pursue any form of unification by absorption while asserting that it has no intention of engaging in hostile acts.

The DPRK celebrations were joined by Russian guests led by Russian State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin. According to the Korean Central News Agency, Volodin, who met Kim on Thursday, read a congratulatory letter from Russian President Vladimir Putin to Kim, expressing his willingness to further develop bilateral relations.

"Today, the DPRK-Russia friendship has developed into an unprecedented alliance," Kim, who is general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and president of the State Affairs of the DPRK, was quoted as saying by the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper on Friday.

Kim said the bilateral relationship has been solidified amid their joint struggle against the revival of neo-Nazism and to safeguard sovereignty, security and international justice.

The DPRK has been wary of military exercises to be held by the ROK with the United States.

"The United States-ROK joint military drills to be started on Aug 18 will undoubtedly make the hostile nature of the ROK brought to light again," Kim Yo-jong, vice department director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, said earlier.

She also noted that she believed Seoul's policy toward the DPRK remained unchanged.

Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Institute for National Unification in the ROK, told Reuters that Pyongyang likely anticipated further conciliatory gestures by the ROK.

The joint military exercise is set to take place from Monday to Aug 28, but the allies said last week that around half of the 40 planned field training drills will be postponed to September.

Lee said a peaceful Korean Peninsula must be nuclear-free.

kelly@chinadailyapac.com