hankyoreh

held at the National Assembly on Jan. 30. (Photo by Kang Chang-kwang)　

By Hwang Joon-bum

The new party platform and North Korea policies announced by the Grand National Party on Monday seem intended to avoid provoking the North if possible. This appears to reflect the idea of the GNP’s emergency measures committee, led by Park Geun-hye, that avoiding provoking the North and building its trust is important.

Most remarkable is the omission of the term, “Working to achieve a transition to liberal democracy.” This was an expression that could mean reunification through absorption of the North. The phrase was in large part aimed more at conservatives in the South than at North Korea itself. While it may have helped gain a few conservative votes, it inevitably had an adverse effect on South-North relations. “If we want the North to talk with us or open up, we have to at least tell it we have no intention of reunifying through absorption,” said one of Park’s advisors.

The phrase, “In terms of exchange and cooperation between South and North, the greater framework of separation of politics and economics will be maintained and transparency must be ensured,” was present in its entirety. The terms “flexible North Korea policies” and “humanitarian assistance,” were also included. “This indicates our intention to find ways of improving substantial South-North relations, rather than [engaging in] ideological struggle,” said one of Park’s advisors.

These changes touch upon the content of a op-ed piece by Park that appeared in the US foreign policy and international affairs magazine Foreign Affairs in August last year. At the time, Park wrote that if the Korean Peninsula, where levels of trust were at rock bottom levels, was to be transformed into a place of trust, trust-based diplomacy, where South and North Korea did what the other expected, was needed. Her comments signified that since GNP would be flexible instead of stubbornly sticking to a party platform and policies that did not meet the North’s expectations, the North should also meet the South’s expectations. “The GNP’s existing party platform and policies merely emphasized the standpoint of the South and excluded that of the North,” said one of Park’s advisors. “Chairwoman Park believes that if trust is to be built up in South-North relations, the most fundamental thing is that our interlocutor does not feel threatened or aggrieved.”

Some analysts claim that the new platform and policies reflect Park’s own critical view of the worsening of South-North relations. This has prompted forecasts that, when it comes to conflict in areas of South-North relations besides the nuclear issue, Park, unlike the Lee Myung-bak government, will where possible avoid taking extreme measures such as completely cutting off exchange.

When it comes to diplomacy, the change from existing pragmatic diplomacy to balanced diplomacy is remarkable. As well as reflecting the “multilateral national security order” that Park has emphasized as a way of building peace on the Korean Peninsula, this gives a glimpse of differentiation from the foreign policy of the current government, which has leant toward the US and moved further away from China. “This has pushed the existing aim of reunification through absorption into the background,” said Kim Yong-hyeon, a professor of North Korea studies at Dongguk University. “I interpret it as indicating that [the GNP] will recognize North Korea as a partner for dialogue and make more positive efforts to improve relations.”

The GNP also stated in its new platform and policies, “We promise, before the people, that we will create a ‘public happiness state’ where all the people can enjoy lives worthy of human beings, together,” and included as the first of 10 main promises, “lifetime, tailor-made welfare that combines universalism and selectionism.” The party abandoned the expressions “oppose distributionist populism” and “break free from the welfare trap” that are found in its existing platform and manifesto.

At a meeting on the same day, Park said, “Based on our amended platform and policies, the party will be very different from now on.” Considering the fact that she does not normally exaggerate, this may presage what is to come.

Most striking of all are changes to the party’s policy line and keystone. It clearly stated that it would abandon its keystone of “big market, small government” and “make economic democracy a reality by reinforcing the role and function of government in order to maximize the efficiency of the market economy and establish a fair and transparent market economy.” The philosophical keynote of the current platform and policies, which were decided upon when the GNP was founded in 1997, can be summarized as a neo-liberal line.

Accordingly, the party stated, “We take job creation and stable employment to be the top priorities of national government and determine the employment rate to be the key index of economic policy.” In terms of education, the party has got rid of the expression “raising excellence and competitiveness” and inserted concepts such as mandatory high school education and character education.

In overall terms, the GNP’s platform and policy amendments appear for now to maintain the framework of a conservative party that regards “the identity of the Republic of Korea and conservative values” as important, but also aim to make great changes to the policies it has pursued until now. The scale of change appears large in comparison to the friction within the emergency committee until now over issues such as deleting conservative phrases, increasing taxes on the rich, and reforming chaebol. This can be regarded as the result of Park having joined with reformists in the committee such as Kim Jong-in, who have been urging a large-scale abandonment of the party’s old identity. Park, who had previously been acting cautiously out of concern over a possible rupture among conservatives, appears to have abandoned her efforts to please those on both sides and taken a gamble of sorts aimed not only at the April general election but also at the presidential election at the end of this year. “The new party platform and policies mean that the party has now been packaged in Park Geun-hye paper,” said one of Park’s confidants.

Contained not only in the welfare policies that were previously the preserve of progressive parties, but also in economic democratization and expansion of the role of government is the will to win outright. Progressive reformist forces such as the Democratic United Party and the United Progress Party are also increasing their progressive tone, so that it appears competition to move to the left in political circles will increase in the run-up to the presidential election.

In consideration of the fact that the platforms and policies of various parties in history have generally come to no more words, it appears the key question now is to what extent the Grand National Party’s new amendments become reality.

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