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Former President Kim Dae-jung strongly criticized “the administration of President Lee Myung-bak for intentionally breaking off inter-Korean relations,” saying, however, that “it won’t be successful.”

At a meeting on November 27 with Democratic Labor Party Chairman Kang Ki-kab and other DLP officials who were visiting Kim’s home to discuss their recent trip to North Korea, the former president said, “We are now in the process of going back 10 years.”

Speaking about the deterioration of relations between North and South Korea, which have gone from bad to worse in recent months, Kim said, “The Lee Myung-bak administration’s Vision 3000 plan for denuclearizing and opening North Korea is the same as Bush’s policy of the past six years,” a policy, Kim said, that “eventually failed.”

Kim strongly urged the Lee administration to change its policy toward North Korea, saying, “President Bush failed to succeed. The Lee Myung-bak administration shouldn’t swim against the tide no matter what may happen.”

Regarding the propaganda leaflets bearing messages critical of the North Korean regime and sent to the North in balloons, Kim said, “The South and the North agreed not to slander each other (under the June 15 Declaration and others). However, we are not living up to that promise” because the leaflets are still being sent northward. “Are these agreements that the private sector doesn’t have to follow but the government does? Who are they trying to fool?”

Speaking about what he says is a regression of the democratic reforms achieved up to this point because of the government’s mishandling of the candlelight demonstrations, Kim sent an indirect warning to the Lee administration, saying, “Those who are practicing strong-arm politics think they cannot fail, and are under the misconception that they are different from the past.”

Kim asked the people to have confidence, saying that democracy “may be facing a temporary set back, but there will be no retreat. Can a dictatorship arise before people who achieved democracy?” In particular, Kim strongly urged the Democratic Party and the Democratic Labor Party to join forces to defend democracy.

Kim said, “I’m very concerned because a crisis of democracy is coming, but I’m not in despair.” Democracy, he said again, “may be facing a temporary set back, but there will be no retreat.”

Kim also called on the opposition parties to work together, saying, “If the DLP, the DP and civic groups fight against this set back by joining forces and forging a democratic alliance on a broader scale, they will certainly succeed.”

It is likely that the two parties will gain the momentum they need to form an alliance. Plans for this have already begun to take shape with working-level officials having reviewed the plan following a meeting between the leaders of the two parties, DP leader Chung Se-kyun and DLP leader Kang Ki-kab, on November 25. But there is a sense of crisis fanning the move.

The DLP said it will soon meet with former President Roh Moo-hyun to discuss its North Korea trip and plans to expand the scope of its “strategic alliance” with the DP.

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