A series of meetings have recently taken place among South Korea, the United States, China, and Japan to discuss resuming the six-party talks to resolve the North Korea nuclear issue. In addition, as a poor harvest and flood damage in North Korea have coupled with a rapid rise in South Korea’s rice stores, calls have been growing by the day for the Lee Myung-bak administration to resume rice aid to North Korea. On these issues, however, the Lee administration has begun to look more like the epicenter for the hardline case against North Korea.

Following a meeting with key figures in the U.S. State Department during his current visit to the United States, Wi Sung-lac, special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said that it was “still too early to proceed into the six-party talks” and that “there first needs to be a responsible attitude from North Korea.”

In his words, this is a “two-track approach,” pursuing both sanctions and dialogue in tandem. But in reality, it is a declaration that the Lee administration intends to maintain its pressure on North Korea. This is a more forceful stance than the United States, which has maintained sanctions against North Korea, but is also looking for a variety of alternatives.

Recently, Wu Dawei, special representative of the Chinese Government on the Korean Peninsular Affairs, visited South Korea, the United States, and Japan with a proposal for resuming the six-party talks. Rather than carrying forward this effort on China’s part, the Lee administration has appeared to be trying to head it off.

Regarding rice aid, the Lee administration has stated emphatically that it is “not considering it at present, and still has no intention of doing so.”

The somewhat progressive remark by one senior official, who said, “If an application for private aid to North Korea in the interests of emergency relief is presented, we will consider permitting it,” still remains a far cry from an active intent to resolve the current situation in inter-Korean relations. It indicates that while the Lee administration may selectively permit private aid to North Korea, it has no intention of making any moves on its own until North Korea bends first on the nuclear issue and in inter-Korean relations. The belief is that rice, as the thing most urgently needed right now by the people of North Korea, is therefore the principal means of applying pressure on the country.

Both North Korea and South Korea stand to sustain severe damage if the situation on the Peninsula continues without a resolution to the nuclear issue or inter-Korean relations. The current antagonism between South Korea and the United States on one side and North Korea and China on the other will also escalate.

However, if countries involved make headway toward resolving the nuclear issue and inter-Korean relations improve, the benefits will come right back to South Korea. This is why it is so important that we take the initiative. Past experience shows that clear progress in inter-Korean relations and the six-party talks has only been made when the South Korean government has moved actively and with a clear goal.

The Lee administration needs to initiate rice aid to North Korea posthaste and to step up its efforts to resume the six-party talks. It goes without saying that it should not be trying to throw the brakes on other countries’ efforts to resume those talks. It will accomplish nothing by merely demanding changes from North Korea.

　　

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