Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha and Seoul-based foreign diplomats visited a new hiking trail on the eastern coast portion of the Demilitarized Zone on Saturday.
Kang, ambassadors and representatives from 52 countries traveled to the DMZ Peace Trails in Goseong, Gangwon Province, which the government opened to the public on April 27 to mark the first anniversary of the Panmunjom Declaration signed by President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha and foreign diplomats in Seoul walk along the Goseong DMZ Peace Trail in Goseong, Gangwon Province, Saturday. (Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
Kang said while hiking the course that she hoped peace, like sunlight, could spread to the Korean Peninsula and the world.
“The weather seems to be a blessing as I am visiting the Peace Trail with the foreign diplomatic corps in Seoul,” Kang said.
Michael Reiterer, ambassador of the European Union, said he hoped that the armistice line on the Korean Peninsula would disappear soon.
“When I was a child, there was a place where the border was installed in Europe like this, but now it is gone,” he said.
There are three DMZ Peace Trails near the inter-Korean border: One each in Goseong and Cheorwon counties in Gangwon Province and another in Paju, Gyeonggi Province.
On May 1, the Cheorwon Peace Trail became the second course to open to the public.
The trekking program was part of the Foreign Ministry-initiated “Experience Korea” program for the diplomatic corps in Korea that has been running since 1991.