hankyoreh

Switzerland

President Lee Myung-bak said Thursday (local time) that he has been “always ready to meet North Korean National Defense Commission Chairman Kim Jong-il.” President Lee also said, “If it is a situation that can be of help in achieving peace on the Korean Peninsula and solving the North Korea nuclear problem, there is no reason we cannot meet even within the year.”

Following these remarks made during the World Economic Forum and broadcast by Great Britain’s BBC network in Davos, Switzerland, President Lee said, “We need to have a beneficial dialogue and to be able to talk sufficiently about the North Korea nuclear issue.” Lee added, “I feel it needs to be approached with an open mind for the sake of reconciliation and cooperation between both countries.”

President Lee’s BBC interview carried a clear and visible message to North Korea regarding inter-Korean summit talks. A closer look at his statements shows some clear differences from previous remarks.

The first clear difference is the reference to a time frame. President Lee indicated that if he were to engage in an inter-Korean summit, he would do so within the year. A government official communicated the changed mood within the government in saying, “This year, the atmosphere in the Cheong Wa Dae (the presidential office in South Korea or Blue House) has been one of placing a greater emphasis on inter-Korean relations than on economic issues.” President Lee will also enter the latter half of his term next year. Government officials and inter-Korean relations experts share the understanding that a summit meeting is nearly impossible politically and realistically once a president enters the second half of his or her term.

Analysts suggest that North Korea could also be viewed as tacitly agreeing on this score, as it may determine that it does not want to go through a repeat of 2000, when a planned visit by then-U.S. President Bill Clinton failed to take place due to a change in administrations, or the failure to implement the 2007 inter-Korean summit declaration from late in the Roh Moo-hyun administration.

In this regard, President Lee’s interview remarks could be viewed as having been made with a 2010 summit in mind. If this is the case, it is important to discern differences between these remarks and previous statements.


During the Lee administration, North Korean and South Korean authorities first began examining the possibility of a summit meeting following the meeting on Aug. 23 of last year between President Lee and the North Korea mourning delegation sent by Kim Jong-il for the funeral of late president Kim Dae-jung. The delegation, which included Korean Workers’ Party Central Committee Secretary Kim Ki-nam, made an indirect reference to the need for a meeting between the two leaders, and President Lee said that any problem could be solved if a solution is sought through dialogue. Attempts at a secret inter-Korean meeting in Singapore last October, of which the government is not issuing statements of denial, can be viewed as having emerged along these lines. However, that secret meeting ended up failing to materialize.

The circumstances surrounding the Singapore meeting have not yet been revealed, but a clue toward understanding why it failed to happen can be found in a remark made by President Lee on Nov. 27 in his “Conversation with the President.” At the time, he said the leaders “could meet if it helps in North Korea’s denuclearization and if we can solve problems from a humanitarian standpoint such as South Korean POWs and abductees to North Korea.” These conditions of having a summit meeting predicated on or aimed at denuclearization were unacceptable terms to North Korea. However, President Lee did show some flexibility on the issue of location when he said a summit meeting would not necessarily have to take place in Seoul.


Thursday’s interview, however, was different. President Lee made no reference to POWs or abductees, whose existence North Korea does not acknowledge. Instead, the president said the dialogue would have to be “beneficial.” He also did not take the position that the nuclear issue would have to be on the agenda, opting instead for a generality by saying that the leaders would “have to be able to talk sufficiently.” Finally, and most notably, he shifted from the use of the phrase “if it helps in North Korea’s denuclearization” to the phrase “if it is a situation that can be of help in achieving peace on the Korean Peninsula and solving the North Korea nuclear problem.” While his previous remarks presented a clear precondition for summit talks, the latest statement indicated he would be willing to engage in such talks if a suitable situation was formed and if sufficient discussions were possible. This is a subtle but hugely significant change in stance.


President Lee also gave a clear response in the interview to the issue whose resolution North Korea has set as a condition and is waiting to hear the opinions of authorities within South Korea. The president said that he does “not view a North Korean collapse as imminent.”

When asked by journalists about the possibility of a summit meeting, a Cheong Wa Dae official responded, “It is darkest just before the dawn.” This bespeaks a confidence that North Korea will take President Lee up on a suggestion for summit talks even as the North Korean National Defense Commission makes declarations about a “holy war of retaliation” and military displays of force continue to take place.

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