hankyoreh

After many false starts, representatives from North and South Korea agreed to hold the reunions for families divided by the Korean War at Mt. Keumgang from Feb. 20 to Feb. 25. Three years and four months have passed since the last such reunion, which took place in fall 2010. Both sides must not miss this opportunity not only to make the reunions a regular occurrence but also to achieve progress in strained inter-Korean relations.

By examining the process that led to the resumption of the divided family reunions, we can learn about the present state of inter-Korean relations. The reunions, which had initially been scheduled for the end of Sep. 2013, were canceled with just a few days to go when talks broke down between the two sides. Relations on the Korean peninsula remained chilly until the beginning of 2014, when the two sides started sending out feelers.

After Pyongyang used its New Year’s address to indicate its desire to improve relations with Seoul, the South proposed holding reunions, and on Jan. 24 the North told the South to select a convenient date. But with both sides arguing about issues including the joint US-ROK military exercises, the North did not immediately respond to the South’s proposal on Jan. 29 to hold working-level talks. It was not until Feb. 3 - after the Lunar New Year holiday had passed - that Pyongyang answered. Essentially, North and South Korea could not trust each other and waged a sharp war of nerves even over the most humanitarian of issues.

The divided family reunions took place for the first time after the Korean War in 1985, but that was basically a one-time arrangement. The in-person reunions that took place in 2000 just after the inter-Korean summit continued through 2007, taking place an average of twice a year for a total of 16 times. But the reunions only took place two times during the five-year tenure of former president Lee Myung-bak, and ended altogether in early Nov. 2010.

Along the way, more and more of the 129,000 divided family members who are registered with the government have died. The percentage of registered people who are deceased rose from 15.9% in 2003 to nearly 50% today.

Our duty to ease the pain of the elderly members of these divided families is only one of many reasons why progress must be made in inter-Korean relations. Before discussions can take place on all of the issues related with North Korea - including dismantling its nuclear program, establishing a peace treaty, and addressing the needs of North Koreans - inter-Korean relations just first be improved.

In particular, in order to accelerate the resumption of the stalled six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear program, an atmosphere in which North and South trust each other and are able to talk to each other is essential. Without an effort to expand exchange and cooperation to establish a pan-Korean community, President Park Geun-hye’s talk about unification being like winning the jackpot will end up as no more than an empty catchphrase. Amid the political uncertainty of Northeast Asia - with the conflict between Japan and China intensifying all the time - better inter-Korean relations will serve us well in restoring balance to the region.

In order to bring about progress in inter-Korean relations, the most important thing is to stop expecting the other side to surrender unconditionally. In the same way, the US-ROK military exercises that kick off at the end of this month must not become an objective in and of themselves. We hope that the South Korean government will raise the level of inter-Korean relations by taking steps to build trust.

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