hankyoreh

Goseong-gun

The new edition of a book on North Korea published by the Education Center for Unification, which is affiliated with the Unification Ministry, and unveiled on May 6, has made a number of revisions to the 2007 edition of the book to reflect the views of the new administration of President Lee Myung-bak. Previous editions of the book refer to the North Korean leader as Kim Jong-il, without using his official title. The 2007 edition of the same book, “Understanding North Korea,” referred to Kim as the chairman of the National Defense Commission.

The change goes against the practice of referring to the North Korean leader by both name and title, which has been in place since the June 2000 inter-Korean summit talks. A ministry official said, “The title can be added or omitted according to the context. The government has not changed its policy on the North Korean leader’s title.”

Another notable change can be found in the first part of the book, which eliminates the significance of the June 15 Joint Declaration. Previous editions had emphasized the declaration as an important agreement between South and North Korea. Instead, the book emphasizes the Inter-Korean Basic Agreement signed in 1991 as significant.

In the 2007 edition of the book, the 2000 South-North summit talks are cast as a turning point for inter-Korean relations. The current edition says that the two Koreas pursued an improvement of relations between South and North based on the Inter-Korean Basic Agreement, but says that the June 15 Joint Declaration of 2000 did not improve inter-Korean relations. It also says that the two Koreas have not had substantial discussions on issues of mutual trust and peace. The 2008 edition of the book characterizes the October 4 declaration of 2007 as a political declaration, saying that it is limited in terms of its ability to build a national consensus and be carried out in a feasible manner.

With the publication of the new edition, the Education Center for Unification appears to adhere to President Lee’s current stance on North Korea, which is widely considered to be much tougher than that of the previous administration . After taking office, Lee said, “The most important inter-Korean agreement is the one signed in 1991,” and he has not expressed a clear position on the two inter-Korean summits of 2000 and 2007.

Kim Ho-nyeon, the spokesman for the Unification Ministry, said, “The new book corrects the contents (of the previous edition) a little to establish a future-oriented view on unification, a sound view on security and a balanced view on North Korea.”

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