hankyoreh

Aug. 23.

Over the past few days, rumors have been spreading about meetings taking place between North Korea and South Korea in preparation for a possible inter-Korean summit. It is an odd situation in which the customers are being gathered even though the store has not yet opened its doors.

Following speculation Tuesday about a meeting between Grand National Party Lawmaker Lee Sang-deuk and Kim Yang-gon, head of the Unification Front Department of North Korea’s Workers’ Party, another rumor about a meeting in Singapore between senior officials from North Korea and South Korea surfaced on Thursday. Some are also saying the South Korean government plans to issue an invitation to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il during the G-20 summit scheduled to be held in South Korea in November 2010. While the government had been strenuously denying rumors of inter-Korean meetings when they first surfaced, equating them to “something out of a novel,” its attitude has been shifting to one of cagey refusal.

The rumors that have been circulating recently share certain characteristics. One is that they say the South Korean government has met with North Korea to pursue an inter-Korean summit. A source from the South Korean government said Friday that he “heard talk about pursuing an inter-Korean summit from senior officials first before any reports in the media.”

Another characteristic is a strong chance that South Korea’s representative will not be affiliated with any formal government organization like the Unification Ministry or the National Intelligence Service. An official at the Cheong Wa Dae (presidential office in South Korea or Blue House) said, “We do not have any officials who have met with Kim Yang-kon,” suggesting the possibility that the person in question was not an official but someone with non-official status.

In any case, experts are calling the pursuit of an inter-Korean summit “something to welcome” as some ‘traffic control’ to a summit meeting is inevitable in order to relieve the strain on inter-Korean relations since the Lee Myung-bak administration took office. Moreover, as North Korea-U.S. relations show signs of thawing, observers are saying North Korea and South Korea, the two principal parties in the Korean Peninsula issue, cannot continue leaving the situation unaddressed.

However, the unanimous view among experts is that the recent situation surrounding possible inter-Korean meetings is not typical. First, if the individual who represented South Korea is not an authority in charge of policy, as the government explanation suggests, this could cause serious side effects. “If a formal organization like the Unification Ministry or an intelligence organization does not step forward, it could fail to be linked with policy, and we could have a situation where no one bears the responsibility,” said Kim Yeon-cheol, head of the Hankyoreh Peace Research Institute. In the addition, the “If it does not work, oh well” style could make the meetings irregular and inconsistent.

Second, security is still essential in pursuing an inter-Korean summit amid deep distrust between North Korea and South Korea. If the pursuit of a summit is announced at a stage when it has not been realized yet, it could just deepen distrust. Should any “security incident” take place, a considerable amount of time and expense would be needed to open a new window for discussions. This is why many observers are saying the rumored summit pursuit process is a sloppy one.

For this reason, other observers are wondering if both North Korea and South Korea are simply trying create an appearance of attempting to make steps towards dialogue. First, following a KBS report Thursday on the Singapore meeting rumor, the stock media response among South Korean authorities has been that they “have nothing that can be confirmed at the moment.” Given the importance of security issues, if they did strongly intend to pursue a summit, the general rule would be to answer that the rumors are “without basis” or “impossible.”

The Thursday edition of North Korea’s Rodong Sinmun newspaper printed a report that also seemed to indicate a desire to announce an inter-Korean meeting. “There seem to be movements of dialogue in various areas appearing between North Korea and South Korea,” the report said.

“When North Korea and South Korea expose information to the outside in such a way, it leads to doubts about their genuineness,” said Dongguk University professor Kim Yong-hyun. Kim also questioned whether the two Koreas are demonstrating reluctance to a meeting that has come about as a result of pressure from China or the U.S.

Former Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun said, “In the early stages, there could be various informal meetings, but the most desirable thing now would be to formalize the meetings by holding an inter-Korean ministerial summit or sending a special envoy.”

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