ROK has effectively abandoned 'denuclearization-first' policy toward DPRK: minister

SEOUL - The Republic of Korea's Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said Thursday that the Lee Jae Myung government has effectively scrapped the previous administration's "denuclearization-first" policy, including its pursuit of the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), and shifted to a "peace-first" approach focused on freezing DPRK's nuclear program.