hankyoreh

Aug. 19 was the date that the South Korean government proposed for holding high-level talks with North Korea, but the date has passed without the talks being held. This shows that it is not easy even for representatives from the two sides to sit down together. Both sides bear responsibility for this state of affairs.

Senior figures from North Korea shared their true feelings with Park Ji-won, lawmaker from the New Politics Alliance for Democracy, who visited the Kaesong Industrial Complex to receive a condolence flowers on the fifth anniversary of the death of former president Kim Dae-jung. Park reported that Kim Yang-gon, head of the Workers’ Party of Korea Unified Front Department and secretary for South Korea-related affairs, had taken issue with the joint US-ROK military exercises, the demands for North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons, and the South Korean media’s criticism of North Korea.

“Why are there so many preconditions? The leader [of South Korea] should decide on something that can actually be implemented,” Park Ji-won quoted Kim as saying. This is understood as a request for the South Korean government to adopt a forward-looking attitude on the questions of the relaxation or lifting of the May 24 measures and a resumption of tourism to Mt. Keumgang.

While a case can be made for these requests, they do not give North Korea adequate reason to avoid high-level talks with the South. If the North has something to say, it should say it in the talks. There are also things that the North must do before the issues of the May 24 measures and tours to Mt. Keumgang can be resolved completely.

The South Korean government should not have proposed holding the high-level talks on Aug. 19, which falls during the Ulchi-Freedom Guardian US-ROK joint military exercises. During this year’s drills, the “customized deterrence strategy” jointly developed by the two countries will be carried out for the first time. North Korea has condemned it as a declaration of nuclear war, and it is unlikely to meet the South while the drills are ongoing.

The hard-lined comments that South Korean high-ranking officials have made in regard to the issues of the May 24 measures and tourism to Mt. Keumgang also hurt the credibility of its proposal to North Korea. President Park Geun-hye did not say a single word about the two issues during her address on Liberation Day.

Currently, the South Korean government seems to have little desire to improve inter-Korean relations until North Korea yields, while the North Korean government wants to improve relations but refuses to alter its aggressive attitude. Both sides have lost sight of the courage to make tough choices and are instead caught up in a struggle to defend their pride. This is no way to get results from high-level talks, presuming that they are held.

Something needs to be done about this tendency for tensions to increase on the Korean peninsula and for inter-Korean relations to be held hostage every time that ROK-US joint military exercises take place. North and South also need to stop squandering time and energy in this battle of nerves in which they do not consider the other side’s position. We urge both sides to make a bold decision.

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