hankyoreh

The inter-Korean summit that had only recently been set for the end of this month has been postponed until October at the request of North Korea, citing the urgent need to work on flood recovery. The damage from the storms that began on August 7 is said to be more serious than initially reported. A considerable amount of the North’s farmland as well as transport, energy and communications infrastructure are under water and hundreds of thousands of people have been affected. They say Pyongyang had been partly flooded, too, and was in no condition to welcome guests. One agency estimates that the North lost 450,000 tons worth of grain. That presents a situation more than a little serious considering that the North was already expected to be 500,000 tons short of food without it. In other words, the whole of the Northern society is facing a difficult disaster.

The fact that the authorities in Pyongyang have specifically said that the North needs to pay urgent attention to recovery and stabilizing the lives of its people when asking for a postponement has to be seen as a frank revelation of how difficult things are. Now is the time when we need to be hurrying to help North Korea with humanitarian assistance. The situation in the North is too miserable for us to be able to make guesses as to what other reasons it may have to want to postpone the summit. There were always suggestions that the reason that the 2000 summit was suddenly postponed by a day was because of money, but this is a different kind of situation.

It is, of course, sad to see the summit postponed. Had it been held as planned on August 28, then one could expect it to have had a positive influence on the six-party talks that get moving again in early September. It is also unfortunate because of the loss of time and momentum with which the results of the summit could have been put to specifics and implemented. There will also be an unnecessary misunderstanding because the date of the summit will be all the closer to the date of the South’s presidential election, since some people will ask whether the government is trying to use the summit to influence the election.

On the other hand, we now have the opportunity to prepare for an even more substantial summit. The way the first date had been scheduled, there was not even going to be a month between the time when it was announced and the time it took place, and the truth was that it was not easy to see what the country wanted and to make organized preparations. Now, the government needs to use the extra time to take a greater interest in surveying public opinion. Having done that, it will be able to act more quickly and concretely on what is agreed on in various areas at the summit. It appears there will be progress on the North Korean nuclear issue in September. If that turns out to be the case, then the leaders of North and South Korea will be better able to focus on mutual relations. The success of the summit will depend on how well the extra time is utilized.