GNP lawmaker Chung Hyung-keun

By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter

A senior lawmaker of the governing Grand National Party (GNP) Monday advised President Lee Myung-bak to pay more attention to inter-Korean relations.

Rep. Chung Hyung-keun, who is known for his hard-line stance on North Korea, told a meeting of the party's decision-making Supreme Council that managing South-North relations wisely is as important as drawing coordinated international efforts.

``Pyongyang desperately wants economic assistance from Seoul to make its economy work, so it doesn't use aggravating words against its counterparts here, although they might feel uncomfortable with the new government's policy,'' Chung said.

A three-term lawmaker, Chung referred to the North's official comments on Lee's North Korea policy, which were made public in an article published on Feb. 28 by the Chosun Sinbo newspaper.

The paper is a pro-North Korean newspaper whose office is based in Japan.

Pyongyang made clear its discomfort with the Lee government's official stance that the South would offer economic assistance to the North after it gives up its nuclear programs.

The article also said Seoul's motive of calling for denuclearization first reflects that the South ``failed to learn lessons from the first North Korean nuclear crisis'' in the early 1990s.

The North further claimed that Lee's plan to help the North achieve per capita income of $3,000 in 10 years if Pyongyang gives up the nuclear programs not only is ``a naive idea'' but also ``ignores Pyongyang.''

Rep. Chung interpreted this as the North Korean leaders perceiving the new government is trying to resolve the nuclear standoff by working closely with the international community, not with the North.

``Although they feel very badly about this, the North still has not expressed harsh expressions as it used to do because it did not want to irritate the South,'' Chung said.

President Lee made clear the need for coordinated international efforts to resolve the security deadlock on the Korean Peninsula.

Lee said in a recent speech that ``nationalism will not help inter-Korean relations move forward'' as the North Korean nuclear programs are ``an international issue.''

Lee's choices of Cabinet ministers also showed his desire to seek international help with the nuclear standoff.

The key posts dealing with diplomacy and unification affairs are filled with officials and scholars whose areas of specialization are international relations.

President Lee nominated Kim Ha-joong, ambassador to China, as minister of unification Sunday.

Kim, 61, has served as diplomatic mission chief in Beijing since 2001, and has kept a close eye on the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear programs.

hkang@koreatimes.co.kr