South Korea “respects” North Korea’s current system and will not pursue unification through absorption, President Lee Jae-myung said in a major speech on Friday, pledging to work to reduce tensions and reinstate a suspended inter-Korean military agreement.

In his remarks on 80th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule, Lee laid out a vision for inter-Korean relations grounded in mutual recognition and peaceful coexistence — a sharp contrast to Liberation Day speeches by former President Yoon Suk-yeol that called for spreading “freedom” to the North and rooting out “anti-state forces” in the South.