hankyoreh

With working-level talks under way on the Kaesong Industrial Complex, North Korea made another proposal on July 10 for talks to resume reunions of separated families and tourism at Mt. Keumgang. The last reunions took place in fall 2010. It also gave notice, for the first time in three years, that it was discharging water from the sluice gates on the Yeseong River.

From the appearances of things, inter-Korean relations seem to be making progress, but the facts tell a different story. The proposal from Pyongyang for new working-level talks seems very likely to be part of an overall “dialogue offensive,” picking up from the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea’s surprise proposal on June 6 for talks between authorities. The agenda is completely the same as the committee’s proposal. It looks as though North Korea is trying to create a positive atmosphere for resuming dialogue with Washington and getting its sanctions lifted by showing the international community that it’s working to improve relations with Seoul. If this is true, the dialogue offensive could continue for the time being.

The South Korean government shouldn’t just view this in tactical terms. This is an opportunity for it to adopt a more proactive North Korea policy. It‘s also easier to get North Korea to give up its nuclear program once relations with the South are better and the six-party talks are back in session.

But from its recent behavior, Seoul appears to want to hold off any improvement in inter-Korean relations for as long as possible. At the talks on July 10, it demanded “a responsible statement of position on the unilateral shutdown of the Kaesong Complex, a clear pledge to prevent this from happening again, and visible steps taken to implement the pledges.” Specific discussions were put off until the third round of talks on July 15. The message it’s sending seems to be, “We’re not in any kind of a hurry.” It was also rash to reject the talks on Mt. Keumgang out of hand.

A bigger problem is the fact that Pyongyang insisted at the July 10 talks that the South was to blame for the complex’s shutdown. The immutable fact remains that North Korea took the first step in shutting down factory operations by blocking access to South Korean employees and pulling out the North Korean workers. At the very least, it needs to come out with a more detailed plan on ensuring no future shutdowns - the outcome of the July 15 talks arguably depends on it. A North Korean official was reported a few days ago as saying that 53,000 of their workers hadn’t gone anywhere and were just waiting for the complex to get back to normal. If the North really does want a functioning complex, or a more developed one, then measures need to be in place against another shutdown.

No trust is going to come of each side trying to get the other to cave. Smoothing out inter-Korean relations is going to require Seoul to be more proactive, and Pyongyang to face the reality of things.

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