South Korean Advisory Council Vice Chair Urges Mutual Use of Official Names for Peace

SEOUL, July 2 (Yonhap) -- The vice chair of the Peaceful Unification Advisory Council (PUAC) on Thursday raised the need for South and North Korea to call each other by their official names in a bid to help bring peace to the Korean Peninsula.

Kang Chang-il, vice chair of the PUAC, a presidential advisory body on unification, made the call, after senior leaders of South Korea's seven major religious orders urged the two Koreas to mutually use their official names.

South Korea currently refers to the North as "North Korea" rather than its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, or "Joson" in Korean, as Seoul does not recognize its ties with North Korea as state-to-state relations under the 1991 inter-Korean Basic Agreement.

"I would first like to express my deep appreciation for the senior religious leaders who said peace begins with respecting each other's name," Kang said.

The first step to turn the armistice system into a peace regime for the two Koreas will begin by calling one another by their official names, Kang said.

"If North Korea calls us the Republic of Korea, it is only reasonable that we call North Korea the Democratic People's Republic of Korea," he added.

Earlier in the day, representatives of the country's seven major religious orders underscored the need to respect the official names of the two Koreas for the sake of "peace on the Korean Peninsula."