hankyoreh

The World Food Program (WFP) has asked Seoul to participate in the giving of food aid to North Korea. The WFP is a United Nations agency that focuses on food in the developing world and urgent food aid, and it operates an office in Pyongyang. North Korea asked it for urgent aid two weeks ago.

There is reportedly a meeting of experts going on in Pyongyang about American food aid for the North. After the meeting is over there will immediately be a survey of demand, after which [the US] is supposed to give 500,000 tons of food. This year North Korea is going to be short between one to two million tons of food, and reports indicate that there are already a considerably high number of starving deaths. The South Korean government, however, has been slow to move on such aid, saying the situation in the North is not all that urgent and that there has yet to be an official request. By the looks of it Seoul is waiting for a change of attitude from Pyongyang, which has been critical of President Lee Myung-bak's North Korea policy [from the start].

Our government in Seoul is not, of course, giving no thought to giving aid to the North. It has said it will follow the principle of "aid in the context of universal [principles of] humanitarianism, without regard to political questions, when it comes to the giving of aid in purely humanitarian aid." The WPF's request qualifies under that principle. The North-South relationship is not an ordinary relationship, and so the normal way of giving aid when it's coming from the South would be for it to be given directly following close dialogue. Even in the past, aid given through international organizations was just a few tens of thousands of tons and most of it was given directly. That aid, in turn, has been "fertilizer" that advances the relationship.
The main reason for the deterioration in inter-Korean relations has been the new admin/gov't's desire to be different from the previous admin/gov't, and its aggressive North Korea policy that grew out of an obsession to be different. At the center of that has been the new president's disregard for the October 4 Summit Declaration and the June 15 Joint Declaration, both signed by the leaders of North and South Korea. Demanding that Pyongyang come out and first formally request food aid is the same as forcing it to ignore those two declarations. That is not the right way to go about it, and there is little likelihood the North will accept it.

Seoul says it is examining several ways to get inter-Korean relations back on track. The solution is not off in the distance somewhere. The president should announce that he is going to do what he can to respect the October 4 [Summit, it said up there] Declaration, and to that end he could propose talks. The issue of aid could be discussed at [renewed inter-Korean] talks. The October 4 Summit Declaration provides for various dialogue formats, including prime ministerial talks. The timing will be of great importance. The aid has to be given before the food shortage leads to a horrific tragedy. The mutual distrust between Seoul and Pyongyang will only grow more serious with time.