[Editorial]What Kim Jong-il should decide

Posted on : 2007-08-14 11:00 KST Modified on : 2007-08-14 11:00 KST
Kim Ji-seok, Editorial writer

“Those with strength, devote their strength, those with knowledge, offer their knowledge and those with money, contribute their money to the foundation of the state. A nation that truly loves the country, the people and democracy must unite strongly to construct a democratic, sovereign and independent state.”

People in North Korea tend to quote these words a lot. They switch the phrase about “constructing the state” for “reunification.” Originally, they were the words spoken by the young Kim Il-sung on October 14, 1945, when he stood before the citizens of Pyongyang for the first time and gave a speech, titled, “All power to the construction of a new, democratic Korea.”

Northerners still look at North-South relations from the perspective of people who are engaged in a decades-old campaign. Subsequently their perceptions, unable to keep up with objective conditions, are hollow . On the one hand they talk about how the South should foot the bill for the creation of a unified Korea because it has the wealth. However, the need for the North to work on changing its system so that the Southern capital can invest itself effectively gets suppressed in the way who talks about the problem.

The same is true about the North’s obsession with the so-called “national contradiction.” The North behaves as though all present problems will resolve themselves once there is progress in its relations with the United States. It claims that Korean peninsula needs to get out from under the American influence, while depending on the United States. However, the United States is primarily focused on its own security interests and maintaining its hegemony, and has no great interest in the lives of North Koreans. Unless the North works intensely to help itself, there is little that it can gain from the Americans.

The North’s National Defence Commission Chairman Kim Jong-il has made various attempts at change in social and economic areas over the past ten years, but has not brought about any distinct results. He has been unable to resolve the most basic of problems, the North’s food shortage, and the procession of defectors continues. It is nothing more than an excuse for him to say that the North did not have the ability to fix things because it was standing up to an American policy that tries to pressure it to death. Kim Jong-il is already in his mid sixties. He is at an age when he has to think about the rest of his life.

The upcoming inter-Korean summit is a precious opportunity for him at this time. The administration of George W. Bush wants to resolve the nuclear issue while it is still in office and it wants to normalize relations with Pyongyang. South Korea and China are both ready to support North Korean efforts to change. Japan’s hostile policy towards Pyongyang will not last long. What are needed most right now are the kind of decisive decisions made by China’s Deng Xiaoping and the Soviet Union’s Mikhail Gorbachev.

The first thing Kim Jong-il needs to do is make his intention to renounce the North’s nuclear capabilities clear. The North likes to repeat the mantra that denuclearization was Kim Il-sung’s final instruction. Kim Jong-il needs to make sure other nations have no reason to suspect Pyongyang of anything by declaring, in detail, everything about the North’s nuclear plans, facilities, materials and weapons, both now and about what it has had up until now. The North’s concerns about guarantees for its security and systems can be resolved easily enough once it is clear that the North intends to get rid of its nuclear capabilities. None of the countries participating in the six-party talks have factions that have the ability to overturn the six-party process itself.

The next thing Kim Jong-il needs to do is get down to specifics on reform and openness. The construction of a peninsular economic community is the historical call of the Korean nation and requires reform and openness on the part of the North. Economic cooperation that does not lead to a structure of mutual prosperity between the two sides cannot last long. The North has been avoiding the words: “reform” (gaehyeok) and “openness” (gaebang). That is because of fears of structural instability in its government. However, the ruling forces in China and Vietnam took their countries down the road of reform and openness and have experienced no big political difficulties.

Finally, what Kim Jong-il needs to do is willfully accept the fact that Korea is at the center of all that relates to the Korean peninsula. Only by accepting this can there be substantial progress in discussions about a peace regime. The principle of having something “amongst us Koreans” that the North likes to talk about so much is unrealistic rhetoric unless it puts South Korea in the center. The only country that can consistently support the North is the South. You can see this easily enough if you look at how the countries party to developments on the peninsula have behaved since the nineties.

This month’s summit is far more important to the future of the North than it will be to the South. Let us hope chairman Kim does not lose this opportunity.

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