hankyoreh

President Lee Myung-bak met with the North Korean mourning delegation at the Cheong Wa Dae (the presidential office in South Korea or Blue House) yesterday, and received a message from North Korean leader Kim Jong-il delivered verbally from one of the envoys and conveyed a message of his own. This was the first indirect contact between the two leaders since the launch of the Lee administration. The high-level meeting the day before between Unification Minister Hyun In-taek and Kim Yang-gon, director of the United Front Department of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK), was also a first. It is said that during the two contacts, inter-Korean relations and pending issues were comprehensively discussed, and the overall mood was good. North Korea and South Korea now stand at a different starting point to end the deadlock in inter-Korean relations.

North Korea’s active intention towards talks is worth noticing. Kim Ki-nam, a secretary of WPK and head of the North Korean mourning delegation, showed a willingness to meet with anyone for the purpose of holding frank discussions, while Kim Yang-gon said he thought inter-Korean relations needed to be improved immediately. Although North Korea’s full-scale move towards improving inter-Korean relations might be intended as a tactic for creating a mood conducive to dialogue with the U.S. and out of need for regime stability, how inter-Korean relations are handled ultimately depends on South Korea government’s efforts.

The Lee administration appeared hesitant to meet with the delegation. Government officials had been saying the delegation that the purpose of the delegation was nongovernmental and referenced North Korea’s initial contact with representatives with the Kim Dae-jung Peace Center. They also said that if North Korea wanted to have government-to-government talks, they should have made direct contact with the South Korean government.

This sentiment was indicated by the fact that contact between the North Korean mourning delegation and Lee and Hyun first took the form of courtesy calls. In addition, the meeting with Lee was concluded after only 30 minutes, an insufficient amount of time given the heap of pending inter-Korean issues. These run counter to the sentiment outlined in the presidential address delivered on Independence Day, where Lee said his administration was always ready to resume inter-Korean dialogue and cooperation on all issues, regardless of time and level.

Nonetheless, what is most important is how the situation is handled from this point on. While both sides agree that there must be dialogue, they still greatly differ on direction and substance. First, North Korea must cleanly settle the matter of detaining the crew of the South Korean fishing boat Yeonan-ho and the Mt. Kumgang tourism issue. Of course, North Korea should not hold inter-Korean relations hostage for some other objective it possesses. It must also sincerely listen to the justified concerns of the international community on several issues.

The South Korean government on its part needs to readjust its North Korea policy. The view in certain circles that South Korea’s hard-line North Korea policy is leading to changes in North Korea is shortsighted and has no consideration of changes in the geopolitical situation surrounding the peninsula. First, South Korea must escape the trap that has been set by predicating improvement in inter-Korean relations on progress on the nuclear issue. Inter-Korean relations and the nuclear issue should be part of the same positive cycle, but progress in inter-Korean relations is highly valuable in its own right. Moreover, it must not just engage in rhetoric regarding the October 4 and June 15 statements, and make clear its intention to execute those agreements. In the future, it cannot position the execution of inter-Korean agreements as collateral. The government should be consistent and firm in its principles that it speaks about and not cease in putting them into practice by referring to existing policy.

It is true that even if there are no guarantees, a golden opportunity progress to improve inter-Korean relations has been presented to North Korea and South Korea, and only proper policy and active realization will bring about positive results. We hope the government bears in mind that both inter-Korean relations and peace on the Korean peninsula, and our voice in resolving the nuclear issue depends on how it leads.

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