hankyoreh

A new atmosphere has begun to transpire on the Korean Peninsula, but the South Korean government remains passive. It could fairly be called the most insensitive to these changes out of all of the countries taking part in the six-party talks. The naturally arising concern is that this stubborn approach will get in the way of real progress in issues related to the peninsula and greatly diminish the role of South Korea in the proceedings.
The Republic of Korea National Red Cross announced yesterday that it would providing 5,000 tons of rice in aid to North Korea. This, of course, falls well short of what North Korea needs, and is absurdly small in comparison to the size of rice aid deliveries in the past. The Lee Myung-bak administration has described this as aid “for dealing with flooding damages” and maintains that “there must be a change in attitude from North Korea if we are to offer large-scale rice aid.”
This is not the approach of an administration taking the initiative in improving inter-Korean relations. No qualitative improvement in relations with North Korea will occur if the Lee administration insists on attaching conditions to the delivery of rice, the most fundamental of humanitarian aid. In light of the fact that South Korea provided over 300 thousand tons of rice in aid to North Korea each year from 2000 to 2007, the scale of aid should be at least 100 thousand tons. We look forward to hearing a new announcement of aid in the future.
The Lee administration even seems to be trying to throw the brakes on attempts by the related countries to resume the six-party talks. Stephen Bosworth, U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, is currently visiting South Korea and said yesterday that he was “neither optimistic nor pessimistic.”
His visit to South Korea, China, and Japan comes just after a tour of South Korea, the United States and Japan by Wu Dawei, special representative of the Chinese Government on Korean Peninsular Affairs, and is a major move toward resuming the talks. The South Korean government, however, has reportedly been calling on the United States to maintain its policy of pressure against North Korea. Outwardly, the United States may align itself with Seoul, but there is a real chance that it could join China in setting the stage for resuming the talks.
When asked last Thursday about the prospects of the six-party talks resuming, Kurt Campbell, U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, said, “It will be critical for there to be some element of reconciliation between North Korea and South Korea for any process to move forward.”
Immediately afterward, North Korea proposed to South Korea holding reunions of separated families. In essence, the United States and North Korea sidestepped South Korea and had their own give-and-take. It is something difficult to imagine if Seoul had shown an active stance on inter-Korean relations and the six-party talks. Indeed, the desire to improve relations with the United States factors strongly into North Korea’s current conciliatory approach to inter-Korean relations.
The limits of hardline policy against North Korea have already become apparent, but the Lee Myung-bak administration refuses to recognize this. As a result, it finds itself being dragged around on all manner of important issues. We hope the administration will now clearly indicate a change in policy and move actively to resolve these issues.
　　
Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]