hankyoreh

President Park Geun-hye showed a more flexible stance on North Korea at a joint briefing on “unification preparations” held on Jan. 19 by four ministries, including the Ministry of Unification and Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Unfortunately, the briefing failed to produce any specific initiatives for practical improvements in relations with Pyongyang.

Park did take a step forward with her demands for “some form of dialogue to rally the public’s support for negotiations and efforts to create conditions that North Korea might respond favorably to.” It’s a message where she’s directing her administration to “create conditions” that take Pyongyang’s position into account, rather than just making unilateral demands on the North. She was also right in stressing “qualitative improvements in exchange and cooperation that can contribute substantively to happiness for South and North Korean citizens,” as opposed to one-off “event” projects. The Ministry of Unification, for its part, took the right road by putting “shared preparations with North Korea” as one of its reunification strategies.

But Park’s remarks, and the content of the briefing, show the administration is still ignoring the real issues, making their proposals that much less realistic. The topics of restarting tourism at Mt. Keumgang or lifting the 2010 sanctions imposed after the Cheonan warship sinking were never even broached, nor were there any references to the Joint Declaration from the inter-Korean summit in 2007 or the June 15 Joint Declaration from 2000. Their ideas for denuclearizing the peninsula went no farther than the standard talk about “urging North Korea to take resolute action” to abandon its program. This makes it all seem rather empty when ideas for major inter-Korean projects like forest planting and environmental protection are proposed. The same goes for enactment of a framework law for peaceful reunification, test-running pan-peninsula train service, or opening an “inter-Korean cultural center.” In terms of “mutually beneficial economic cooperation projects,” nothing new was on the table besides the existing Kaesong Industrial Complex and the Rajin-Hasan distribution project.

Right now, Seoul is focusing on humanitarian issues like the plight of divided family members, while Pyongyang is calling for the lifting of the May 24 Measures of 2010 and a halt to joint military exercises with the US. Even if the exercises are put on the back burner for now for being so closely tied to the nuclear issue, the administration should at least state a clear position on economic cooperation. If it can’t simply lift all the sanctions like Pyongyang is demanding, then it should restart tourism at Mt. Keumgsang to open up a wider channel for dialogue. That project was halted before any of the international sanctions against North Korea, and Seoul could solve the problem if it was committed enough. Matters like the divided families and expansions in economic cooperation could be discussed at high-level talks or other forms of dialogue down the line.

It certainly is important to make preparations for a reunified Korea. But when our leaders merely talk about unification without offering any ideas for thawing relations with Pyongyang or making headway on the nuclear issue, they risk coming across like they’re exploiting the issue for political ends. Hopefully, the administration will add some real substance to the “conditions” Park talked about so that we can get inter-Korean relations moving in the right direction again.

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