hankyoreh

secretary for South Korea-related affairs

By Park Byong-su, senior staff writer

Now that the Ulchi Freedom Guardian US-ROK joint military exercises have ended on Sep. 28, a day ahead of schedule, the next question is whether North Korea will respond positively to the South Korean government’s proposal for a second round of high-level talks. What happens with the meeting between senior officials from Seoul and Pyongyang could be a bellwether for gauging whether the political situation on the Korean peninsula will shift toward dialogue in the upcoming months.

North Korea has remained silent about Seoul’s offer for a second round of high-level talks, which was made on Aug. 11. The North appears to be holding to its principle of not participating in talks while the US and South Korea are holding military exercises.

Indeed, Kim Yang-gon, head of the Workers’ Party of Korea Unified Front Department and secretary for South Korea-related affairs, took issue with the fact that the date Seoul proposed for the high-level talks (Aug. 19) fell during the period of the military exercises (Aug. 18 to Aug. 29). “Why did you have to propose holding the second round of high-level talks on a day when the military drills are taking place?” Kim asked when he met Park Ji-won, lawmaker with the New Politics Alliance for Democracy, at the Kaesong Industrial Complex on Aug. 17.

But now that the end of the drills has removed the most immediate obstacle to the talks, the conditions are in place for North Korea to come to the table. The South Korean government has also made plans to take aggressive action soon to once again urge the North to accept the proposal for the talks, reports say.

But the scrapping of the North’s plans to send a cheering squad to the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon has led to hurt feelings on both sides, meaning North Korea could delay its response to the South’s proposal.

On Aug. 28, Pyongyang announced that it would not be sending the cheering squad since Seoul is “worried and trying to pick a fight” about it. This provoked another squabble between the two sides. The North claimed that it had already given the South official notification that it would not be sending a cheering squad on Aug. 22 around the group drawing for the Asian Games and that the South had kept this secret. The South, on the other hand, retorted that the North’s comments about its plans had been unofficial and off the record.

Along with this, North Korea’s recent behavior suggests that it is not making a very concerted effort to move the situation into a new phase. On Aug. 29, after the exercises came to an end, the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland (CPRF) released a statement criticizing South Korea. “It is extremely brazen for them blabber on about how the talks can take place as if nothing were wrong,” the CPRF said.

This can be seen as a message that, as long as the South holds to its position that it cannot revoke the May 24 measures or resume tourism to Mt. Keumgang, North Korea regards inter-Korean dialogue as useless and has few expectations about altering the status quo.

“North Korea’s attitude appears to be that it does not need to swallow its pride and depend on inter-Korean talks since its economy has been in decent shape recently. Furthermore, the North appears to be doubting Seoul’s sincerity since it said that anything was open to discussion at the high-level talks and then said that it was maintaining its position on the May 24 measures,” said Kim Geun-shik, professor at Kyungnam University

However, since North Korea has not officially rejected the South’s proposal for high-level talks, it is still possible that the talks could take place.

In a related story, an effort is underway to have Kim Kwan-jin, national security chief for the Blue House, visit the US. “Kim’s visit to the US is an issue about which the US and South Korea are deliberating. Nothing has been decided yet,” said Blue House spokesperson Min Kyung-wook.

Kim’s visit to the US could take place as early as Chuseok, the Korean harvest festival, on Sept. 8. During his visit, he is reportedly planning to discuss the big picture on the Korean peninsula, including the issues of North Korean nuclear program and another delay of the transfer of wartime operational control, with senior US officials in charge of these issues including White House National Security Advisor Susan Rice.

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