hankyoreh

Apr. 1. The fishing grounds in Goseong County

By Choi Hyun-june, staff reporter and Seok Jin-hwan, Blue House correspondent

The Dresden Doctrine, the painstakingly crafted three-part proposal to North Korea delivered in Germany by President Park Geun-hye, is now being put to the test. North Korea responded to it by calling it “junk” and firing harsh invective at Park. As the problems mount following the previous day’s live fire drills in the West (Yellow) Sea, some observers are already saying Park’s proposals may be done for, but many other analysts are saying the jury is still out.

Pieces in North Korea’s Rodong Sinmun newspaper and on Korean Central Television on Mar. 31 and Apr. 1 featured some very strongly worded denunciations of Seoul. The news outlets referred to the Dresden Doctrine as “bits of useless junk scraped together,” while launching a character assassination against Park, who they called an “odd spinster” and “old hen” who “lacks a political philosophy or convictions.” The comments came in the form of man-on-the-street interviews rather than official editorials or commentaries, but the intensity of the vitriol was nearly unprecedented.

The emotional response, including the decision to resort to slurs, shows just how dissatisfied Pyongyang is with Park’s policies - but may also hint at its high expectations. Indeed, in consenting in discussions with South Korea last February to allow divided family reunions to go ahead despite ongoing joint military exercises between South Korea and the US, representatives expressed hopes from Park, who they said was “supposed to have a high regard for principle.” While North Korea did make shows of force with medium and short-range missile launches into the East Sea during the exercises once the reunions were over, it also restricted its criticisms to the US and refrained from denouncing South Korea or Park.

This trend abruptly changed in late March, around the time of the Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague. While attending the summit, Park made repeated reference to the “North Korean nuclear issue” and criticized the Pyongyang regime’s two-track guiding policy approach of building a strong economy and strong nuclear armaments. She also expressed concern about the North Korean nuclear facilities at Yongbyon, which she said could “turn into a disaster of Chernobyl scale.”

From the North Korean leadership’s standpoint, the comments may have sounded like the South Korean head of state blasting its core policies and facilities. Indeed, an angry statement issued on Mar. 27 in the name of a Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea (CPRK) spokesperson accused Park of “making provocative misstatements about the republic’s [North Korea’s] nuclear program.” It was the first time Park was singled out by name for criticism since the high-level talks in February.

But analysts also said it may be going too far to view the latest response as the “official” line of authorities in Pyongyang. In particular, they noted that the remarks were made in the press rather than through the CPRK, North Korea’s official body for relations with the South, and appeared not as editorial or commentaries, but news articles - the least official of formats.

“It doesn’t look like North Korea has formed its official position just yet,” said Kim Chang-soo, director of research at the Korea National Strategy Institute. “It seems more like they’re trying to indicate the internal climate.”

From this perspective, the comments read as a roundabout expression of North Korea’s dissatisfaction with the Dresden Doctrine - but also an indication that it plans to watch and wait for future signs of Seoul’s attitude.

The South Korean government expressed concerns about the emotional response, but reaffirmed its plans to go ahead with Park’s proposals as initially planned and intended. Its position is that while Pyongyang may be reacting testily at the moment, it would be hard-pressed to reject all of the proposals - which included humanitarian aid and infrastructure building - out of hand.

It also showed Seoul’s continued lack of interest in taking active steps to improve ties. For all the efforts it put into clearing the way at home and abroad to generate concrete results from the Dresden proposals, it still appears to have no plans for the most crucial element of all: proposing senior-level talks with Pyongyang.

“For a lot of reasons, inter-Korean relations are a complete mess right now,” said one North Korea expert, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Seoul needs to propose senior-level talks if it has any intention of improving things.”

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