▲ Kim Moon Soo at today’s event (© DailyNK)

Gyeonggi Province governor and presidential hopeful Kim Moon Soo believes that a two-track policy of national security coupled to aid and assistance are the key to establishing a new era in inter-Korean relations.

Kim, who was speaking at a forum for would-be presidential candidates at the Press Center today, explained, “[Gyeonggi Province] has done more aid projects for North Korea than other regional administrations. Because it is a province on the front line of the division, we should have firm national security and exchanges and cooperation with North Korea.”

He went on, “Gyeonggi Province has recruited 22 defectors as public servants. The rumor that if you work well and go to South Chosun you can get picked as a public servant has even reached North Korea. We have been supporting work to eradicate malaria in North Korea for the last four years, too.”

However, Kim also said he believes in reacting strongly to North Korean provocations, explaining, “We must have no compunction about securing the territory and sovereignty of the Republic of Korea. When they attack our territory for no reason, we must show a sufficient response.”

But, he reiterated, “We must have a policy of comprehensively supporting them with humanitarian aid at the same time.”

Kim also warned about the dangers of a sudden turn for the worse in North Korea, pointing out that the Berlin Wall fell without a moment’s notice, and that American experts all failed to predict the fall of the Soviet Union just two years later. “North Korea is weaker now than the USSR and Germany at the time the wall fell,” he added.