Sincere talks needed to make up for lost five years
Breaking a six-year hiatus, South and North Korea will resume high-level talks in Seoul Wednesday. Both governments deserve compliments for overcoming escalating military tension and various political difficulties that continue to trouble this divided peninsula.
However, negotiators from both Koreas face a long, turbulent road ahead.
Nothing illustrated this better than the marathon, working-group meeting at the truce village of Panmunjeom over the weekend, which heralded both the possibilities and limitations of the upcoming talks, too.
After haggling over an agenda and attendees for 17 hours, the two sides failed to reach a complete agreement and issued separate press releases. South Korean officials
d
upgrading the status of the chief North Korean negotiator, while their North Korean counterparts tried hard to include a joint celebration of the two historical inter-Korean accords in 1974 and 2000 in the agenda. No inter-Korean bargaining can be free from political implications, but past experience shows that excessive politicizing of events will get them nowhere.
The time has long past for both Koreas to realize the need to
substance from style to attain results. The working-level negotiators easily agreed on three main agenda items _ reopening the joint factory park in the North Korean border city of Gaeseong, restarting cross-border tours to a scenic mountain resort, and the reunion of
d family members and _ but producing substantive results regarding any of the these issues will never be easy.
It will be especially hard if North Korea refuses to give assurances that there will be no repetition of unilaterally stopping these joint economic projects in ``official documents” instead of making just verbal promises. It’s time for the North to learn to respect international practices
.
There are even far bigger mines that can completely derail the hard-won momentum for dialogue: the South’s adherence to the North’s admission and/or apology for the two naval
s in 2010, and Seoul’s demand for unequivocal renunciation of nuclear programs on the part of Pyongyang. The two Koreas should be able to properly control the tone of their language in terms of demands made or responses given when dealing with these two political issues, which are not on the agenda of the ministerial talks but will have explosive potential if handled badly.
The negotiators and their governments need to be doubly cautious in order to make the most of the occasion not just to settle pending issues but to fix them as a lasting frame for regular inter-Korean contact. The first governmental contact between the Koreas in more than half a decade will also bear far greater importance than it appears because it comes against the bigger backdrop of resetting the U.S.-China relationship as well as the rebalancing of Beijing’s stance between the rival Koreas.
Pyongyang should be far more sincere than in the past because the upcoming meeting will serve as a touchstone to prove its genuineness in talks with other partners, bilateral or multilateral.
It also will mark the first step for President Park Geun-hye’s inter-Korean policy summed up as ``trustpolitik.” Few South Korean leaders have had a better environment with greater potential for diplomatic accomplishments than Park _ if she and her diplomatic team are armed with both vision and skills. We hope that this “if” is not too big.
This is The Korea Times editorial for Tuesday, June 11, 2013.
※ 다음에 나오는 문제들은 본 사설에 나오는 중요한 어휘들로 구성된 토익, 토플, 텝스 기출 및 예상 문제입니다.
※ Choose the one word or phrase that best keeps the meaning of the highlighted part.
1. He will
his promise if he gives it.
① revenge on
② allow for
③ renew
④ stick to
2. This employee has no
skills in computer work now, but we may be able to teach her quickly.
① careful
② obvious
③ long term
④ unscrupulous
3. The economist sought to
all fears of a depression.
① disperse
② entangle
③ coincide
④ hurl
4. The war began as a response to a
, and it did not proceed in the manner of a calculated initiative.
① complete attention
② natural tendency
③ something that angers
④ test of strength
5. Choose the wrong English translation of the following.
이 점에 대해서 아무 할말이 없습니다.
① I have nothing to say with this regard.
② I have nothing to say with regard to this.
③ I have nothing to say in this regard.
④ I have nothing to say regarding this.
⑤ As regards this, I have nothing to say.
[해설 및 정답]
1. [번역] 그는 일잔 약속을 하면 그것을
[어휘] adhere 고수하다, 따르다(stick to, obey, abide by)
① 원수를 갚다, 복수하다 ② 참작, 고려하다 ③ 갱신하다; 회복시키다
[정답] ④
2. [번역] 이 근로자는 현재로선 컴퓨터작업에 있어
기술을 가지고 있지 않지만 우리는 그녀를 신속히 가르칠 수는 있다.
[정답] ②
3. [번역] 그 경제학자는 경기불황에 대한 모든 두려움들을
했다.
Cf. disperse (의혹, 불안 등을) 털어버리다(dispel, drive away, repel); 흩뜨리다(scatter)
[정답] ①
4. [번역] 그 전쟁은
에 대한 대응으로 시작된 것이지 계산된 주도의 방식으로 시작(진행)된 것은 아니었다.
[어휘] provocation 도발, 자극, 화나게 함(something that angers)
[정답] ③
5. [해설] in this regard 이(그) 점에 있어서는(regarding, with regard to, in regard or respect to, as regards ↔ without regard to, regardless of, irrespective of)