hankyoreh

On Jan. 9, North Korea rejected the South Korean government’s proposal for a working-level meeting to prepare for holding reunions of divided families around the Lunar New Year. This is likely to be a sore disappointment for families who had been hopefully awaiting the reunions.

The North made the wrong choice by rejecting the proposal. It had its reasons, including the South’s military exercises and its lack of willingness to consider the North’s proposals, but linking the reunions with other issues is not a humanitarian position. The South’s military exercises are annual events that are not intended to provoke the North. The North’s attitude does not match the spirit of Kim Jong-un’s New Year’s address, in which he said that an atmosphere must be created in which inter-Korean relations can be improved.

But the South Korean government also bears considerable blame. When President Park Geun-hye and her administration proposed holding reunions for divided families, they made no mention of the issue of resuming tourism to Mt. Keumgang, something the North wants. Considering that this issue was one of the reasons why the reunions fell through in Sept. 2013 just a few days before they were scheduled to take place, few people thought that the North would readily accept this proposal.

Not only that, but a senior South Korean government official made comments on Jan. 8 that South Korea and the US are engaging in efforts to “lead North Korea to change.” For the North, this may look less like improving inter-Korean relations and more like a scheme to bring about regime change in the North.

In a situation like the present, with strained relations between Seoul and Pyongyang, achieving compromise will not be easy as long as both sides keep making tactical decisions. There must be the belief that thawing relations will help resolve all of the issues affecting the Korean Peninsula and will lay the groundwork for unification. Both sides must set aside their attempts to stubbornly insist on their own opinion and to put pressure on the other side to give in. It is particularly important to refrain from criticism of each other and to let the seeds of dialogue take root. This proposal and its rejection effectively illustrate the fact that both North and South are lacking in this regard.

We hope that the South Korean government will be more resolute in its efforts to improve inter-Korean relations. Simply talking about unification without making any concrete efforts can actually have the effect of raising tensions on the Korean peninsula. This is even more so the case considering that both sides are planning military exercises through March of this year. We also look forward to seeing North Korea making the first move to adopt a more forward-looking perspective. The North said that it will sit down with the South at an appropriate time, but there is no time like the present.

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