hankyoreh

By Kang Tae-ho, senior staff writer

A variety of opinions are being voiced about the 12-hour visit of core figures in the North Korean leadership to Incheon on Oct. 4. Clearly, there are increasing expectations that inter-Korean relations may change.

On Oct. 7, a Hankyoreh reporter met with Song Min-soon, former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and heard his opinion on questions including why North Korea sent those figures and what should be done to improve inter-Korean relations in the future.

Song said that North Korea “had nothing to lose” by sending the delegation to South Korea. “There’s a sense in which North Korea expressed its confidence at home and in respect to the South by sending these officials to South Korea. To draw a comparison to running a business, opening dialogue with South Korea is a way for the North to keep its options open by finding new clients outside of China, the US, and Japan,” Song said.

But the prevailing view is that it is too early to look for a dramatic reversal in inter-Korean relations, since the meeting bore no fruit other than an agreement to hold a second round of high-level talks between North and South Korea. Furthermore, while South Korea held open the possibility of a meeting with President Park Geun-hye, these hopes were dashed when North Korea did not agree.

“North and South Korea need to set aside hostility and antagonism, become friendly neighbors, and finally progress into a national community. But they are still in conflict, trying to block each other, trying to test each other’s will, and playing a zero-sum game. I think that we need a low tide period, a time after the tide has gone out and before it comes back in,” said Song.

During the meeting, Hwang Pyong-so, director of the North Korean People’s Army’s general political bureau, was paired with Kim Kwan-jin, South Korea’s national security chief, while Kim Yang-gon, head of North Korea’s United Front Department, and Ryoo Kihl-jae, South Korea’s Unification Minister, were counterparts.

Considering that North Korea refused the South’s request for the director of the North’s United Front Department to be the counterpart to the South’s Unification Minister last year, which led to the cancellation of the minister-level talks that North and South Korea had been planning, the North’s attitude seems to have changed. Song emphasized this, pointing out that, since North and South Korea have already had two summits, it is no longer appropriate for them to attempt to transform inter-Korean relations through “shock therapy” of this kind.

“Regarding a summit as the best way to break the deadlock caused by the May 24 measures runs the risk of falling prey to the delusion that summits can accomplish everything. We should be starting with something simple. We could start by resuming tourism to Mt. Keumgang and move forward from there. The North Korean military stated openly that the incident [the 2008 shooting of a South Korean tourist] occurred due to unavoidable circumstances. This could lead to an apology. This issue should be addressed during the high-level talks between North and South Korea,” Song said.

If the May 24 measures are a roadblock preventing North and South Korea from moving forward, the issue of North Korea’s nuclear weapons is a little more complicated. North Korea thinks that it has no choice but to deal with the US on the issue. In contrast, the Obama administration seems unwilling to work with the North. “Because of extreme distrust of North Korea, Obama is unlikely to gain any political advantage domestically even if he invests in diplomacy with North Korea,” Song said.

What Song emphasizes is the role of South Korea. “South Korea needs to take action now to lower the threshold for resuming the six-party talks,” he said.

“We need to acknowledge that, as long as no progress is made on the issue of North Korean nuclear weapons, it is inevitable that there will be fundamental limitations on inter-Korean relations. While resolving the problem of North Korean nuclear weapons should not be a prerequisite for improving inter-Korean relations, the two cannot be separated, either. The best approach is to find a balanced way to pursue both of them simultaneously,” Song said.

“South Korea is the only country that can bring the US and North Korea to the table. As an ally of the US, South Korea needs to send the message that it strongly desires such talks. By doing so, it would also elicit the support of China. Public opinion in the US could change as well if South Korea makes this request to the US while also securing China’s cooperation.”

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