hankyoreh

There is a clear difference in the way our government and that of the United States are dealing with North Korea as of late. First would be their responses to reports North Korean National Defence Commission Chairman Kim Jong-il is ill. While reported in the American press, the U.S. government has to this date failed to make any official comment. The Blue House, however, confirmed early on that Kim was “bedridden,” a comment followed by competing disclosures by government officials of what has at some times been unconfirmed information and at others sensitive intelligence.

Another area where the approaches are different would be the area of relations with Pyongyang. The United States continues to utilize the “New York channel” to talk to North Korea about the question of verification, even after the North halted its nuclear disablement process, and it is proceeding with its existing plans for providing food aid. While there have been slight changes lately, for the most part our government has been preventing non-governmental exchange and has for all practical purposes decided to ignore requests for emergency food aid for North Korea by the World Food Programme.

The recent comment by President Lee Myung-bak about the Gaeseong (Kaesong) Industrial Complex can be seen as being in the same context. Speaking to a group of executives from medium-sized companies on September 10, he said we “have to be good judges of what would happen if we were to build dormitories (in Gaeseong) that house tens of thousands.” Late last year, North and South Korea agreed on the construction of dormitory facilities as part of an expansion plan for Gaeseong. The Blue House explains that it is not opposed to the dormitory, but Lee made it easy to interpret what he said as an attempt to dampen the prospects.

It is indeed a fact that the United States and South Korea are in different positions, and that in our case, we have much less room to maneuver in inter-Korean relations because of the shooting of a South Korean tourist at Mount Geumgang (Kumgang). However, the important thing is that the more difficult the situation, the better one has to be at crisis management, to prevent relations from getting worse. It is clear which country has the better attitude toward North Korea, if you stop to think about whether it is Washington or Seoul that would be more reliable from Pyongyang’s standpoint right now.

North and South Korean representatives to the economic and energy cooperation working group of the six-party talks meet tomorrow in Panmunjom. Of particular note is that this contact comes at the North’s request. With the North showing a potential change of attitude, this might be an opportunity for our government to, depending on how it handles the situation, set relations on the right track again. Instead of just being businesslike and passive about the relationship, we would hope the government takes more initiative and is more proactive. And when it comes to food aid, it is time to stop procrastinating and make the right decision.

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