hankyoreh

It’s problematic for the South Korean government to openly criticize Japan for pursuing dialogue with North Korea. First of all, it is inconsistent with its own criticisms of Pyongyang for not responding to its dialogue offers. Seoul should be taking the initiative in improving inter-Korean relations by having the relevant departments address peninsular issues more actively than they're doing right now.

Japanese Cabinet Secretariat Adviser Isao Iijima arrived in Pyongyang on May 14 and met with Kim Yong-il, international secretary for the Workers' Party of (North) Korea, and Kim Yong-nam, Chairman of the Presidium for the Supreme People's Assembly. He was there more or less as a special envoy for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, so it's likely that the discussions were fairly substantial. Meanwhile, both governments have been behaving in a way that suggests dialogue is going on. With a House of Councillors election coming up in July, Abe would very much like a breakthrough on the issue of Japanese citizens who were abducted to North Korea. Pyongyang, for its part, would like to use its dialogue with Tokyo to break the death grip of sanctions against it. Still, not much is likely to come from a handful of meetings. North Korea shows no signs of altering its position that Japan will have to address certain historical issues before there are any real discussions on abductees. We can probably expect some back-and-forth between the two sides in the days to come as they try to bridge the gap.

Meanwhile, the leaders in Beijing praised the dialogue as potentially beneficial in solving issues related to tensions on the Korean Peninsula. Washington is not very happy about Tokyo going ahead with things without discussing the matter first, but it has held off so far from any open criticism. This stands in sharp contrast with Seoul, where a Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman bluntly said a few days ago that Iijima's visit was "not helpful" to the countries' close coordination against Pyongyang. Japan has argued that any judgments on North Korea should be withheld until after they've met and talked. This makes some amount of sense.

Seoul claims to be trying to "build trust" on the peninsula, but it has been very hesitant to make the first step in reversing the poor state of inter-Korean relations. It's also being rather touchy about the possibility that Pyongyang might ignore it and make headway by talking to another country. This is childish, and there is no reason to act this way if it sincerely wants a resolution to the nuclear weapon and missile problem. The right approach would be to create a framework for dialogue to solve the problem, and then encourage the other countries to participate. Individual meetings could easily fit into this framework.

Seoul may gripe about Japan going ahead with the meeting without talking to us first, but that is not the core issue. Japan will never be the country that solves the nuclear issue. Hopefully, Seoul's first step will be to consider its own approach - and its willingness to do what it takes to solve the problem.

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