South Korea’s new administration has processed six reports from civilian organizations about plans to contact North Korea since taking power early this month, ending a prolonged freeze under the previous government that effectively blocked inter-Korean exchanges.

The Yoon Suk-yeol administration stopped processing such proposals to contact the DPRK in 2023. While it made a brief exception following devastating floods in North Korea in summer 2024, the unification ministry later started rejecting contact requests again, citing Pyongyang’s lack of response.

“The Ministry of Unification recently accepted reports of contact with North Korean residents for humanitarian aid, religious purposes and sociocultural exchange,