October 15, 2025
SEOUL – The Lee Jae Myung administration on Tuesday unveiled a sweeping reorganization of the Unification Ministry that seeks to revive inter-Korean dialogue and expand economic cooperation with North Korea.
The plan includes reinstating the ministry’s Office for Inter-Korean Dialogue around two years after it was abolished and creating a new office dedicated to promoting inter-Korean economic projects. Operations at the Kaesong Industrial Complex, shuttered since 2016, will also resume.
The Unification Ministry, responsible for inter-Korean affairs, also plans to expand its staff to 600 by hiring 67 personnel, around 83 percent of the 81 staff cut under the previous conservative Yoon Suk Yeol administration.
The reshuffle centers on reversing cuts made under the Yoon Suk Yeol administration’s 2023 downsizing initiative, which had diminished the ministry’s role in promoting inter-Korean cooperation, dialogue and exchanges.
The ministry will also eliminate the current office overseeing North Korean human rights issues in a bid to scale back its internal functions, which increased under the Yoon administration.
“The basic direction is to restore the ministry’s capacity to reestablish inter-Korean relations based on reconciliation and cooperation by reviving the Office for Inter-Korean Dialogue,” the ministry said.
The reshuffle also “aims to strengthen its functions in promoting a peaceful economy and shared growth on the Korean Peninsula,” it added.
The Office for Inter-Korean Dialogue, which is responsible for inter-Korean talks and contact, will be restored after it was abolished and scaled down into a division.
The Unification Ministry said in a statement that the goal of the resurrection is to “promote the resumption of inter-Korean dialogue and its regularization and institutionalization.”
The Office for Inter-Korean Dialogue will “carry out functions such as formulating plans for inter-Korean talks, managing their operations, restoring and operating inter-Korean communication channels, and overseeing inter-Korean transit.”
The Office for Inter-Korean Dialogue had been merged into the existing Inter-Korean Relations Management Bureau and downgraded to the Inter-Korean Dialogue Strategy Division within the bureau in September 2023 under the Yoon administration. The Inter-Korean Relations Management Bureau will be dissolved in the upcoming ministry reshuffle.
At that time, the Yoon administration cut 81 personnel — a 13 percent reduction from 617 to 536 — as part of its restructuring plan, folding departments responsible for inter-Korean exchanges and cooperation into the Inter-Korean Relations Management Bureau and closing them down.
The Unification Ministry will establish a task force, called the “Peace Cooperation Zones Promotion Bureau” in Korean, to promote inter-Korean economic projects.
According to the ministry, the bureau aims to promote “the formation of an inter-Korean economic community through the normalization, expansion and development of cooperative zones.”
It will also be responsible for “advancing the normalized operation of the Kaesong Industrial Complex, creating special peace economy zones, and planning and pushing ahead with peace cooperation zones,” the ministry said.
Unification Minister Chung Dong-young further disclosed during an annual audit of the ministry at the National Assembly on Tuesday that “we will begin by restoring the Kaesong Industrial District Foundation to prepare for the reoperation of the Kaesong Industrial Complex.”
The Park Geun-hye administration suspended the operation of Kaesong Industrial Complex in February 2016 in response to North Korea’s nuclear testing and the launch of the Kwangmyongsong-4 long-range rocket, which violated multiple UN Security Council resolutions. At that time, the Park administration said the majority of North Korean workers’ income was being funneled to the Kim Jong-un regime.
Another key objective of the ministry reshuffle is to establish an office for comprehensive inter-Korean cooperation, whose Korean title will be the “Peace Exchange Office,” according to the unveiled plan.
The office will be dedicated to “preparing for the future of a peaceful economy and shared growth on the Korean Peninsula, and promoting mutually beneficial inter-Korean cooperation in areas such as humanitarian aid and climate and environmental issues.”
The Unification Ministry will also abolish the current Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs Office, which was expanded under the Yoon administration, and merge it into a newly established bureau, called the “Social and Cultural Cooperation Bureau” in Korean.
The ministry explained that the establishment of the bureau aims to “promote stable inter-Korean social and cultural exchanges and seek practical solutions to humanitarian issues, including those of separated families” divided by the 1950-53 Korean War.
The bureau is composed of five divisions and one team, with its function of addressing North Korean human rights issues sharply reduced to the inter-Korean human rights cooperation division.
“It is responsible for supporting diverse civilian exchanges; making progress on issues concerning separated families, abductees, detainees and prisoners of war; promoting human rights peacefully and cooperatively; and supporting the settlement and self-reliance of North Korean defectors,” the ministry said of the new bureau.
The Unification Ministry will issue a legislative notice on the planned reshuffle on Wednesday and proceed with the reorganization in early November after completing related government procedures.
dagyumji@heraldcorp.com