hankyoreh

Nov. 21. (by Lee Jeong-ah

By Kim Kyu-won, staff reporter in Busan

The first session of “A New East Asian Regional Order 2013: Past Conflict to an Age of Reconciliation,” the 8th Hankyoreh-Busan international symposium, saw passionate exchanges of questions and answers between presenters and discussants on the three presidential candidates’ policies for reunification, foreign affairs, and national security.

The two-day event kicked off on Nov. 21 at Nurimaru APEC House in Busan’s Haeundae district.

Presenting on the North Korea policy of Saenuri Party (NFP), presidential candidate Park Geun-hye, Rep. Kil Jeong-woo (NFP-Yangcheon A) said that healing inter-Korean relations would require changing distrust to trust.

“Rather than rushing, we need to fix the small things first, one at a time,” Kil said.

He went on to introduce some of Park’s policies aimed at restoring trust between North and South, including mutual respect for their Basic Agreement, humanitarian aid delivered through international organizations, and pushing the six-party talks on the nuclear issue and strategic dialogue among Seoul, Washington, and Beijing.

But Busan Democratic Memorial Association secretary-general Kim Gwang-su took issue with the similarities to the Lee Myung-bak administration‘s policies.

“Park Geun-hye’s policies are similar to the Lee Myung-bak administration’s ‘Vision 3000’ in that they essentially view denuclearization as a precondition for everything else,” Kim said. “We are destined to repeat the last five years of failures by the Lee administration if we approach it from a perspective that prioritizes solving the nuclear issue.”

Kil acknowledged that Park’s policies were more like the Lee administration’s policies than were those of the other two candidates, the Democratic United Party’s Moon Jae-in and independent Ahn Cheol-soo.

But he also said Park plans to work on the nuclear issue alongside other issues, without making it the top priority.

“I think that if the Lee Myung-bak administration were to even partially lift its May 24 measures [taken in the wake of the 2010 ROKS Cheonan sinking] during its term, it would help the next administration in its North Korea policy,” Kil said.

Former Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok said that Moon Jae-in wants to use full-scale economic cooperation between North and South as a way of getting on track for reunification.

The approaches Lee pointed to included lifting the May 24 measures, resuming tourism at Mt. Kumgang, expanding the Kaesong Industrial Complex, holding dialogue on a special zone of peace and cooperation in the West Sea, staging reunions for separated families, discussing South Korean prisoners of war and abductees in North Korea, and holding summit talks.

But Kyungsung University professor Jo Gyeong-geun insisted that Moon needs to make his position clear on the Northern Limit Line (NLL).

“The Northern Limit Line issue needs a comprehensive framework where we take into account its military and economic aspects and its role in inter-Korean relations,” Jo said. “If the South Korean government is vague in its position, that leaves an opening for military clashes with North Korea.”

Lee responded that neither Moon nor the Roh Moo-hyun administration, where Moon served as chief of staff, had ever been “vague” on the issue of the NLL.

“During the Roh administration, the Northern Limit Line in the West Sea was guarded without any military clashes,” Lee said. “Making the West Sea into a Peace Zone instead of a zone of military conflict was the policy of the Roh Moo-hyun administration, and it’s Moon Jae-in’s policy, too.”

Paik Hak-soon, a senior researcher at the Sejong Institute and member of Ahn Cheol-soo’s election camp, said his candidate plans to work simultaneously on the three areas of improving inter-Korean relations, building a peace regime on the peninsula, and resolving the North Korean nuclear issue.

As specific examples, Paik mentioned setting up direct phone lines between the leaders and military in North and South Korea, working to improve the human rights situation in North Korea, discussing a joint fisheries zone in the West Sea, promoting and institutionalizing economic cooperation, developing economic zones on the Yellow Sea and East Sea, and linking up a continental railroad.

But Pusan National University professor Hong Soon-heon argued that Ahn’s vision for North Korea policy was vague.

“It’s difficult to tell what he is planning to do with his North Korea policy. He needs more specifics in his policies,” Hong said.

Paik said the specifics would be developed by Ahn’s transition committee if he wins the presidency.

“At the moment, I think it’s more important what the candidates’ philosophy or plans are for North Korea policy,” he said.

Paik went on to say what he thought set Ahn apart from the other candidates.

“He places more value on reunification - which has become an empty foreign affairs/security concept under the Lee Myung-bak administration - than on foreign affairs and national security, and he puts reconciliation between North and South at the top of his priorities in inter-Korean relations,” he explained.

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