* At a town hall meeting held in northern Gyeonggi Province in November 2025, President Lee Jae-myung, along with the Ministers of National Defense and the Interior and Safety, listens to remarks from residents of the border region . © Blue House Il Young Jeong Senior Research Fellow_Institute of Social Science_Sogang University The South Korean government is pushing to move the Civilian Control Line (CCL) northward and ease regulations governing military facilities in border areas. In this regard, the Ministry of National Defense has announced plans to “actively pursue the lifting and easing of restrictions on protected areas in order to enhance the rights and interests of the public and revitalize local communities, while maintaining a robust military readiness posture.” From the perspective of easing tensions in border areas and addressing the inconveniences faced by local residents as the government pursues a policy of peaceful coexistence on the Korean Penin...
* The joint presidential briefing by the Ministry of Unification, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Ministry of National Defense for the second half of 2026 is being held at the Blue House on August 5, 2026. © Blue House Il Young Jeong Senior Research Fellow_Institute of Social Science_Sogang University On August 5, the Ministry of Unification, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of National Defense jointly presented their policy reports to President Lee Jae-myung for the second half of 2026. Traditionally, presidential policy briefings have been held only once at the beginning of the year. The Lee government, however, added a summer briefing as a midterm assessment of its policies. The occasion also served as an opportunity to evaluate and adjust the government’s policies toward the Korean Peninsula over the past year. In this column, I will examine the Lee Jae-myung government’s policy of peaceful coexistence on the Korean Peninsula, identify its key challenges, an...