At a press conference with her South Korean counterpart yesterday U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said envoy Stephen Bosworth will be responsible for overseeing North Korea policy, including dialogue between the United States and North Korea. She said she and Foreign Minister Yu Myung-whan would be discussing the best way to make progress in the six-party talks. The process of building a concrete framework for the United States and South Korea to approach North Korea has begun.

It was right for the two foreign ministers to reaffirm their goal of the complete and verifiable abandonment of North Korea’s nuclear programs through the six-party talks. Many people already agree that the best way to do that will be for Pyongyang and Washington to normalize ties and for there to be a peace treaty between the two, and to simultaneously seek to provide energy and economic aid to the North, in what is being referred to as a “comprehensive approach.” It will be critical for there to be concrete plans and the formation of conditions for negotiations. That Clinton repeatedly expressed concern about North Korea’s preparations for a missile launch during her visit shows that she understands the urgent need to reestablish North Korea policy. Seoul and Washington need to make these talks a stepping-stone on the way to picking up the pace of a resolution of the issue.

It looked desperate for our government in Seoul to have made inter-Korean relations a major topic of the discussions with Clinton. Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said it is North Korea that is refusing to engage the South in dialogue, but responsibility for much about the way relations have deteriorated lies with the Lee Myung-bak administration for essentially ignoring the October 4 and June 15 declarations. Inter-Korean relations are not going to improve by themselves just because Clinton said that Pyongyang is not going to be able to have a different kind of relationship with the United States by refusing to talk to and criticizing Seoul. If the Lee administration has any desire to improve inter-Korean relations, it is urgent that it make a clear change in its approach to Pyongyang instead of depending on the United States for better relations.

On her way to Korea, Clinton was inappropriate for mentioning the issue of succession in North Korea and the possibility of an internal power struggle there. If Pyongyang interprets her comments to mean she does not regard the current government there seriously, it could become a new obstacle in resuming the six-party process. It was also problematic for our government to have hastily announced that it is going to expand reconstruction support for Afghanistan to include the training of police officers. Important foreign policies should be explained to the Korean public first, and the government should seek the country’s agreement before announcing it to other countries.

We hope that North Korea, for its part, makes an accurate reading of the way things are going, and that it behaves wisely. It must not let this rare opportunity simply idle away. It needs to realize that test firing a missile would do nothing other than create unnecessary tension.

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