[Editorial] New policy needed on N. Korea

Posted on : 2008-05-10 14:39 KST Modified on : 2008-05-10 14:39 KST

North Korea has reportedly submitted a massive amount of information on its plutonium-based nuclear plans, including several logs on the operations of its Yongbyon reactor, to Sung Kim, the director of Korean affairs at the U.S. State Department. Prior to this, Christopher Hill, the U.S. chief negotiator for the six-party talks, had said that Kim’s visit was aimed at receiving the North’s promised nuclear declaration, suggesting that the second phase in the North Korean nuclear process will be finalized at some point in the near future.

If and when the North submits its official nuclear declaration to China, the host country of the six-party talks, the United States will take steps to remove the country from its list of states sponsoring terrorism. There also is news that Pyongyang and Washington have agreed to televise the North’s destruction of a cooling tower at the Yongbyon reactor. With this, it is hoped that efforts to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue will overcome the current crisis. It certainly has not been easy to negotiate the next stage, which involves verification of the North’s nuclear declaration and the method and timetable by which its nuclear programs will be scrapped. As the North and the United States seem to be determined to resolve the issue, however, the six-party talks are not likely to run off track again.

The United States has been very active in providing food aid to the North as well. The United States plans to provide the North with 500,000 tons of food as soon as its Pyongyang delegation and the North agree to conditions for how the food will be distributed. It is clear that such assistance will support the smooth progression of nuclear negotiations and become a positive factor for the discussion on the normalization of ties between the two countries. According to estimates by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, North Korea’s food shortage will amount to approximately 1.66 million tons this year, almost twice the amount it was last year.

However, despite the seriousness of the situation, the South Korean government has maintained its unrealistic, hard-line position toward the North. The government says that it will focus government resources on resolving the nuclear issue, but, in the end, it has become an outsider because it no longer has any leverage in the nuclear negotiations. In addition, the South’s emphasis on both resolution of the nuclear issue and the principle of reciprocity in inter-Korean relations, along with its refusal to implement agreements made in the previous two inter-Korean summits, has increasingly aggravated inter-Korean relations. The government’s high-handed position of considering providing food aid only if there is request from the North has also invited the criticism of the international community.

Though it is wrong for the North Korean press to continue to make violent remarks about President Lee Myung-bak and his administration, the South should be the one to find a solution because it has largely invited this kind of criticism from the North. Before worrying about the North making contacts with the United States while excluding the South, the government should first and foremost devise a future-oriented policy on North Korea through which it can lead a resolution of the situation on the Korean Peninsula. It is not responsible for a sovereign state to look blindly to the United States for a resolution without making any efforts of its own.

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