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Apr. 15. (Blue House photo pool)

By Cho Hye-jeong, staff reporter

Late at night on Apr. 14, the Blue House expressed strong regret over North Korea’s rejection of a proposal for inter-Korean dialogue, but the following day, it made no mention of the issue. Senior officials at the Blue House only reiterated that South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s desire to participate in talks with the North has not changed.

It had been expected that the North would launch a missile on Apr. 15, North Korean founder Kim Il-sung’s 101st birthday. As the day passed without any movements being detected, it appears that the Blue House believes that there is still a chance that North Korea will come to the negotiating table.

“We expressed regret for North Korea’s behavior, and we addressed what we needed to address,” said a senior Blue House official. “Yesterday’s message from the Blue House was first of all a proposal to engage in talks.”

“The trust-building process on the Korean peninsula is only possible if we abide by what we have agreed upon and if trust grows,” said another senior official. “But since North Korea violated the agreements and shut down the Kaesong Industrial Complex, we needed to say that first of all we want to sit down to talk about why in the world they did that. But since they have even stopped us from sending food to the people at Kaesong, we had no choice but to express our regret, even if only on a humanitarian level.”

The official said that, by using the diplomatic protocol of an expression of regret, the Blue House was able to say what it needed to say to North Korea while putting more pressure on Pyongyang to engage in dialogue.

Observers believe that Park’s focus on using talks to solve the Kaesong issue derives from the importance of Kaesong in finding a solution to the critical state of inter-Korean relations. The nuclear issue is complicated by the involvement of neighboring countries such as the US, China, and Japan, meaning that it would not be an appropriate subject for inter-Korean talks. With Kaesong, however, a solution can be found through compromise between North and South. For this reason, it is believed that Kaesong could be a starting point for dialogue.

“There is a sense in which inter-Korean relations are highly influenced by what is happening. If North Korea launched a missile, talks would become moot and the situation would change radically,” said a senior Blue House official, noting that talks need to take place soon, before a missile launch actually occurs.

“There are a number of problem areas, but ultimately, Kaesong is the only basic framework inside which talks between North and South Korea can take place,” the source said.

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