hankyoreh

By Yi Yong-in, staff reporter

The Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea (CPRK), North Korea’s organization for relations with the South, sent an “open letter” containing questions to President Park Geun-hye.

The CPRK also claimed that the state of inter-Korean relations depended entirely on Park’s attitude.

The document, titled “An Open Questionnaire to Park Geun-hye,” called Park’s definition of reunification “antagonism against the regime, in which one side consumes the other using the strength of outside forces,” adding that “antagonism against the regime constitutes war,” the Korean Central News Agency reported on Apr. 23.

The open letter went on to urge Park to “give an answer as to whether she wants peaceful unification or war.”

In total, the document posed ten questions to Park, including whether she was prepared to halt the scheduled Ulchi Freedom Guardian joint military exercises with the US in August, whether she planned to lift the so-called “May 24 measures”, which halted inter-Korean trade in the wake of the 2010 sinking of the ROKS Cheonan warship, whether she intended to establish a “peace zone” in the West (Yellow) Sea, whether she was prepared to abolish the National Security Law, and whether she was willing to abide by the Joint Communique of July 4, 1972, and the Joint Statements of June 15, 2000, and Oct. 4, 2007.

The CPRK added that Park should give the “right answers” to the questions “if she is truly committed to building trust between North and South and opening the door to peaceful reunification.”

The topics mentioned in the open letter covered the full gamut of “fundamental issues” and pressing concerns that Pyongyang has been focusing on in recent years.

The problem, however, is that none of the terms are likely to be accepted by Seoul.

“The fact that North Korea is attempting to articulate its position in logical terms means its aim is less to pour cold water on things that to urge a change in policy,” said Chang Yong-seok, a senior researcher at the Seoul National University Institute for Peace and Unification Studies.

Kim Chang-soo, director of research at the Korea National Strategy Institute, said the letter was intended as a strategic move. “It‘s the kind of thing that can serve multiple purposes, depending on how Seoul responds going ahead and whether there are any changes in the situation,” Kim said. “It can used as a means of negotiating, or it can be used to raise tensions.”

Also on Apr. 23, North Korea’s Red Cross sent a message of condolences to the victims of the Sewol ferry sinking. 　

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