hankyoreh

who is from North Korea’s Hwanghae Province

By Choi Hyun-june, staff reporter

North and South Korea agreed to hold a working-level meeting at Panmunjeom on Feb. 5 to prepare for reunions of divided families.

While the date still has not been set, it is looking increasingly likely that the first reunions since 2010 will indeed go ahead. The key question that remains is the impact of the South Korea-US joint military exercises scheduled to begin at the end of February.

On the morning of Feb. 3, North Korea proposed holding the working-level meeting for the reunions at the Unification Pavilion (Tongilgak) on the North Korean side of Panmunjeom on either Feb. 5 or 6, allowing South Korea to choose the more suitable date. No mention was made of the date for the reunions.

The proposal came eight days after Seoul’s Jan. 27 proposal to hold a working-level meeting on Jan. 29 and reunions on Feb. 17 to 22.

The South Korean government said it was “pleased” that North Korea accepted the proposal, adding that it had suggested holding the working-level Red Cross talks on Feb. 5, a date that North Korea immediately agreed to.

Issues to be discussed at the Feb. 5 meeting include the reunion dates, the number of families that will participate, and accommodations.

The question of the dates is seen as most important. Seoul’s original suggestion of Feb. 17 to 22 may not be realistic, since it may not leave enough time to prepare.

“Obviously, we’re going to need to discuss it with the North, but in view of the urgency of the family reunions, we plan to do what we can to make them happen as quickly as possible,” said Ministry of Unification spokesman Kim Ui-do, adding that a decision would be made “after seeing the situation on the ground.”

If matters such as accommodations rule those dates out, the situation becomes more complicated, with South Korea scheduled to hold back-to-back Key Resolve and Foal Eagle joint military exercises with the US starting on Feb. 24.

Accommodations are another matter to be addressed, a point of contention between the two sides ahead of reunions last September. The problems arose when South Korea asked for lodging at the relatively well-equipped Kumgangsan Hotel, only to have North Korea propose the Haegeumgang Hotel - a floating facility that has been neglected for several years - instead.

The participants in the reunions are likely to come from the same 100 families selected last September. With six of the South Korea families abandoning the reunions for various reasons - including some deaths - a total of 94 families would take part.

Some observers said the positive outcome with the working-level meetings is a sign that North Korea is serious about improving relations with Seoul.

“When North Korea did not respond the proposal for working-level talks right away last time, it may have been because the South Korean military was doing firing drills in the West (Yellow) Sea,” suggested Kim Chang-soo, director of research at the Korea National Strategy Institute.

According to Kim’s interpretation, Pyongyang’s commitment to improving ties appears fairly clear. On Jan. 28, it requested that South Korea halt its firing exercises in the West (Yellow) Sea. When the South went ahead with them anyway, the North delayed responding to Seoul’s proposal for working-level talks.

Some uncertainty continues to hover over the event - especially with North Korea making no reference to South Korea’s proposed reunion dates of Feb. 17-22 in accepting the offer for a meeting.

“Judging from the recent circumstances in North Korea, it looks as though the Unified Front Department [in the Workers’ Party of Korea] is pushing for reunions, while the military is trying to hit the brakes,” said a South Korean government official on condition of anonymity.

“If the military keeps making an issue of the military exercises with the US, the reunions could end up being canceled all over again,” the official added.

On Feb. 2, Hyun Hak-bong, North Korea’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, told the Financial Times in an interview that the reunions “can’t be held under a dangerous situation in which South Korea and the US stage the joint military exercises.” This suggests that while North Korea is pushing for reunions on one hand, it also appears to want to use the issue as leverage to get the joint exercises postponed or canceled.

A senior official with the South Korean Ministry of Unification downplayed the significance of Hyun’s remarks.

“You can’t really claim that North Korea’s ambassadors overseas are fully aware of Pyongyang’s intentions,” the official said on condition of anonymity. “From this end, it looks like he just made a general statement.”

Meanwhile, Ministry of National Defense spokesperson Kim Min-seok commented on what he called a “decreasing trend in North Korea’s threatening and slanderous broadcasts against the South” during a regular briefing on Feb. 3.

“As far as I’m aware, there hasn’t been any halt to the other activities [besides slander] that North Korea proposed a mutual moratorium on, including military activities,” Kim said.

In addition to cutting down on its broadcast broadsides against South Korea, the North Korean military also reportedly stopped distributing propaganda leaflets on the five West (Yellow) Sea Islands and elsewhere on the western front sometime in mid-January. The Ministry of National Defense is viewing this as a preliminary step toward improving relations with Seoul.

“It would not be out of line to view the decrease in slander as part of the ‘preliminary steps’ that North Korea said it would be taking,” the ministry said. “But we will still have to watch to see if this is a temporary thing or if it leads to a reduction or halt to military activity too.”

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