hankyoreh

director of the Korean People's Army General Political Bureau

By Choi Hyun-june, staff reporter

The most significant outcome of the visit of senior North Korean officials to South Korea on Oct. 4 was the agreement to hold a second round of high-level talks. With chances increasing that the second round of talks - which have been stalled since the South proposed them in August - will take place in late October or early November, inter-Korean relations appear to be moving toward a new turning point.

It is possible to predict many of the items that will be on the agenda of the second round of talks. In fact, North and South Korea have been wrangling over these topics for some time.

When South Korea proposed holding a second round of high-level talks on Aug. 11, the agenda that it suggested discussing included reunions of the families divided by the Korean War and other issues of mutual interest to both sides. In effect, the South did not set limits on the agenda for the talks, but it put the focus on the question of the divided family reunions.

The problem is that the issue is not of equal importance to North and South Korea. The South takes an active interest in the question for humanitarian reasons, while the North has been more reticent to take action because of the considerable cost of selecting the participants and the other steps involved in preparing for the event. For South Korea, on the other hand, holding the reunions does not place a large financial burden on the government, and the reunions also have political utility.

Because of these different perspectives, North Korean officials prefer to address the question of the divided families in conjunction with issues that they are more interested in, including resuming tours to Mt. Keumgang. The reason that North Korea agreed to hold reunions for the divided families around Chuseok last year was that South Korea had promised to discuss resuming tourism to Mt. Keumgang.

Making progress on the question of reunions for divided families may once again require this sort of compromise. However, South Korea remains cautious about the idea of resuming tours to Mt. Keumgang out of concern that this could allow bulk cash to flow into the North.

It is likely that North Korea’s main demand will be blocking the launch of balloons filled with propaganda leaflets from the South. North Korea has made several calls through various channels asking that the launches of leaflets be stopped, including one statement in mid-September by the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, which claimed that the South Korean military had been mobilized for the launches. North Korea claims that the distribution of leaflets is a violation of the agreement reached during the first round of high-level talks in February to refrain from mutual slander and insults.

But the South Korean government has responded coldly to these requests. The pamphlets are being launched by civilian groups, the government says, and it cannot get involved because doing so would infringe on these groups’ freedom of expression. Considering that even former president Lee Myung-bak took action to regulate the distribution of the leaflets, the Park administration’s response raises questions about how serious it is about improving relations with North Korea.

Another proposal that North Korea is expected to make during the second round of high-level talks is to lift the May 24 measures, which shut down exchange and cooperation with North Korea. The key here is whether South Korea can show some degree of flexibility on this point.

Some other issues that South Korea could discuss include agricultural cooperation and building a world peace park in the DMZ, projects that were mentioned in President Park’s Dresden Declaration.

However, there are some who believe that North and South Korea lack the framework to start discussing specific topics. Indeed, President Park has taken every opportunity to sharply criticize North Korea and its human rights record at international events. The North has responded to this recently by once again criticizing Park by name

Consequently, the prevailing view is that the second round of high-level talks will consist of discussion about setting the larger agenda for inter-Korean relations rather than attempting to reach consensus on specific issues. Considering how tense relations have been between North and South Korea, the two sides will need a chance to rebuild trust. Furthermore, the gap in the two sides’ position on most agenda items is so great that it will probably take a large amount of time for them to reach an agreement.

“There are many issues that North and South Korea need to address, including resuming tours to Mt. Keumgang, the peace park in the DMZ, North Korean nuclear weapons, and humanitarian aid. However, I don’t think that we are at the place where we can discuss these issues one by one,” said Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae, who appeared on “Sunday Diagnosis,” a program on KBS.

“We need to look at the big picture and talk about the approach we will take in discussing these issues in the future,” Ryoo said.

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