Calls for N. Korea policy shift intensify

Posted on : 2008-11-22 13:36 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
Conservatives and progressives alike urge Lee administration to take flexible, cooperative approach to N. Korea policy
 the chair of the Buddhist Broadcasting System
the chair of the Buddhist Broadcasting System

Movements urging the Lee Myung-bak administration to shift its policy toward North Korea to a more cooperation-oriented policy for the normalization of inter-Korean relations have been springing up in succession, transcending the boundaries of conservative and progressive.

Prominent figures from various fields, including Paik Nak-chung, chair of the All-Korean Committee for Implementation of the June 15 Joint Declaration, and Ven. Young-dam, chief director of the Buddhist Broadcasting System, held a press conference November 21 at the Seoul Press Center and declared, “The crisis in North-South relations must not be left alone any longer.” They urged the government to “break away from its myopic policy of ignoring North Korea and pursue a shift toward ‘inter-Korean relations of peace and co-prosperity’ that make active use of changes in the international situation.”

The 39 individuals participating as originators of the “Council for Normalization of Inter-Korean Relations” include elder Park Yong-gil, widow of the late Rev. Moon Ik-hwan, as well as novelists Hwang Suk-young and Hyun Ki-young, poet Shin Gyeong-lim, former Hankyoreh Shinmun Vice President Im Jae-gyeong, former MINBYUN-Lawyers for a Democratic Society Chair Lee Suk-tae and Gaeseong Industrial Complex Tenant Companies’ Association Chair Moon Chang-sup.

At the press conference, the council issued a petition and announced that they would hold their first council meeting on December 2. They said that inter-Korean relations are currently at a crucial point leading toward long-term deterioration, and they stressed the need to hold a council meeting, saying, “There is a need for efforts to announce more broadly to citizens the current situation of inter-Korean relations, with its possibility of entering a worst-case scenario, and for authorities from both nations to prevent the further deterioration of South-North relations.”

An additional 103 figures from Protestant churches, including David Yonggi Cho, minister of the Full Gospel Church, held a press conference at the Korean Christian Building in Seoul’s Jongno on the same day, presenting a declaration entitled “From the perspective of Christians concerned about the continuous hardening of inter-Korean relations, urging a true policy of coexistence and co-prosperity.” In their declaration, they wrote, “The government needs to respond in a cooperation-oriented way rather than exaggerating the possibility of rapid changes in North Korea.” They also urged the government to “pursue a slightly more flexible and inclusive approach in a balanced way, including the abandonment of North Korean nuclear capabilities, the formation of friendly relations between North Korea and the United States and Japan, and the establishment of a system of economic cooperation and peace, rather than carrying out a confrontational policy with the goal of bringing out internal changes in North Korea.”

In particular, the council members and Protestant church figures who held press conferences that day recalled the principle of “mutually prohibiting slander and defamation” in the basic agreement between North and South Korea and urged the immediate cessation of leaflet distribution activities to North Korea by certain groups of North Korean defectors and private citizens.

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

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