[Editorial] Continuing South Korea’s leading role

Posted on : 2008-01-02 10:21 KST Modified on : 2008-01-02 10:21 KST

The joint editorial appearing on New Year's Day in North Korea's three main newspapers is considered the Pyongyang government's New Year's address. This year's editorial used the term "peaceful prosperity" (pyeonghwa beonyeong) several times over. Gone were the usual calls for a "grand union of anti-conservatives" in the South to oppose the Grand National Party and the other usual criticisms of the GNP. Overall, the editorial emphasizes uniting behind the North Korean government and strengthening the North's economy, and it also placed a lot of weight on advancing inter-Korean relations by, among other things, thoroughly implementing October's summit declaration. This shows you that Pyongyang has considerable expectations for the new South Korean government, that of President-elect Lee Myung-bak.

The six-party talks are reaching a crucial point, specifically over the North's declaration of its nuclear past and present and the United States' removal of the North from its list of terror-sponsoring states. The deadline for declaration was the end of 2007. There had been gradual progress on disabling the North's nuclear facilities, but now, for technical reasons, that process is going to be completed by no sooner than next month. The joint editorial made no mention of the nuclear issue and maintained a composed tone throughout. This means Pyongyang wants to maintain the tone of implementation of the talks while placing importance on negotiating with the United States, as it has done so far. The situation is in need of a new turning point, one that can lead to full declaration and the next stage of the process, that in which the North fully abandons its programs. What is needed at a time like this is for South Korea to play a leading role.

The fact the South is having a change of government must not act as an obstacle. It will take months for President-elect Lee Myung-bak's foreign policy team to be functioning and put together basic policies, and in that amount of time the six-party talks could lose a lot of momentum. The situation would get even worse if relations between Pyongyang and Washington were to become a point of debate as the U.S. presidential election campaign picks up in full. The situation leaves much for the new administration to work on. The order of things right now, therefore, would be for the current administration of Roh Moo-hyun to do all that it should while Roh is still in office and for President-elect Lee to fully cooperate. They can confer about what they have to, but there must be no lapse in the effort to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue.

The same goes for inter-Korean relations. There are various discussion formats up and running at the moment, all working on implementing or putting into specifics the contents of the declaration from the summit last October. These are largely working discussions in character, as they proceed based on an existing agreement. Park Jin, GNP member of the National Assembly and part of the foreign policy and unification subcommittee of Lee's presidential transition team, goes too far when he makes comments that seem to want to restrict inter-Korean contact while Roh is still in office. An overwhelming majority of the Korean public supports the summit declaration. They support it because progress in inter-Korean relations is itself part of the process of reunification and can also be used as important leverage in resolving the North Korean nuclear issue. With Pyongyang actively wanting to see advances in relations, we are being presented with an opportunity right now.


Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]

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