hankyoreh

South Korean President Park Geun-hye (second from the right)

President Park Geun-hye will be in Russia, China and Laos between Sept. 2 and 8 to attend the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF), a G20 summit and an ASEAN summit. Apart from North Korea, these meetings will be attended by the main countries involved in the issues on the Korean Peninsula. In addition to the multilateral meetings, there will also be several sets of bilateral talks, which are expected to focus on peninsular issues like the North Korean nuclear program and the deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) antimissile system.

South Korea’s diplomatic conditions at the moment are quite poor. Most crucially, the North Korean nuclear issue is being placed on the back burner, with objections from China and Russia drawing attention in the wake of Seoul’s announcement of plans to deploy THAAD in Seongju County, North Gyeongsang Province.

China’s conflict with the US and Japan in the South and East China Seas are growing more intense by the day. As the spat take clearer shape between Washington and Beijing, Seoul finds its choices more limited. Meanwhile, Pyongyang continues beefing up its nuclear and missile capabilities. With the US presidential election not far away, the Barack Obama administration is losing some of its diplomatic grip.

The main thing needed here is control of the situation. We need to stop things from getting worse and create some momentum for international cooperation. We especially need to work toward calming China, which is on edge over the THAAD issue. Even if we do not announce plans to cancel the deployment, it is still important to show some flexibility. Instead of simply shrugging off China’s concerns, a more realistic approach would be to genuinely hear out its ideas for an alternative. We also need to make headway in cooperating with Russia on development in its far eastern region. Vladivostok, the host city for the EEF, is the hub for its Primorsky Krai Province, which is near North Korea. Securing a base in that region would broaden South Korea’s radius of activity.

Something else we should be more focused on is working in new ways to strengthen international coordination toward a resolution of the North Korean nuclear issue. Doing this will require more than just North Korea policies that are all about sanctions and pressure; we need ideas for bringing Pyongyang to the table for dialogue. Fleshing out those plans and winning support from other countries is fundamentally South Korea’s role. Those efforts could also be a way of relieving some of the antagonism between the US and China. Beyond international coordination, we need efforts to reestablish relations between the South and North.

Managing the situation is essential, but it does not totally solve all the current issues. We should not forget the central focus here: resolving the North Korean nuclear issue. President Park needs to show some fresh thinking on her trip – recognizing the limits of her approach thus far and coming up with new ideas for transcending them.

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