South Korea's unification ministry officially used the term "North Korea's denuclearization" in the first white paper on inter-Korean affairs issued by the conservative Yoon Suk Yeol administration Friday.

In the annual Unification White Paper, the ministry also stressed the need to improve the North's human rights situation, and used terminology that was not used under the former liberal government in an apparent bid to highlight the government's tough stance on the North.

"North Korea has maintained a hard-line stance against South Korea and the United States. Amid chronic economic difficulties, the North has continued its nuclear and missile provocations, escalating security uneasiness on the Korean Peninsula," it said.

In the white paper, the ministry used the term "the denuclearization of North Korea" instead of the "denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," in an apparent bid to clarify the North should give up its nuclear programs.

The former Moon Jae-in government officially used the latter in reference to the 1992 Joint Declaration of the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

In the latest document, the ministry also preferred to use "the US-North Korea relations" rather than the widely used expression "North Korea-US ties."

President Yoon took office in May 2022, pledging to be tough against the North's provocative acts. It also proposed an "audacious initiative" aimed at helping Pyongyang develop its economy in return for denuclearization steps.

"The priority of the government's unification and North Korea policy has been shifted to efforts to denuclearize North Korea, normalize the inter-Korean ties, improve the North's human rights records and prepare for unification," the ministry said.

Meanwhile, the two Koreas had no mutual visits by personnel and saw zero trade volume last year amid the frayed inter-Korean ties and the COVID-19 pandemic, data from the ministry showed.

The value of humanitarian aid to the North reached 2.6 billion won ($2 million) last year, down from 3.1 billion won from the previous year. (Yonhap)