By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter

Conservative scholars Wednesday called on the government Wednesday to convince Chinese and U.S. policymakers to believe that a unified Korea would not pose a threat to them, but would instead create an opportunity.

Nations would benefit from "a Korea that will be whole, free and at peace" as it is the key to peaceful Northeast Asia, they said in papers prepared for a seminar to be held today, organized by the conservative think tank Hansun Foundation for Freedom & Happiness.

For the goal to be achieved, they argued, South Korea needs to help North Korea reconstruct its almost bankrupt economy with technical assistance on export-led economic growth.

According to them, the U.S. and China want the status quo on the Korean Peninsula as the two countries believe unification would risk their interests.

"Despite the North's nuclear tests, twice in 2006 and this year, China tried to bolster bilateral ties with North Korea. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's visit (and promise to provide economic assistance) to the North in October illustrates this," said Prof. Oh Syeong-ryeol of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.

"The United States and North Korea are looking at the chance of holding bilateral talks."

There is a discrepancy, though, between Oh's observation and the official position of the United States on the North's tactics, given that the U.S. State Department and diplomats urged North Korea to stop resorting to provocations and return to the multilateral talks.

U.S. officials stressed on several occasions that the purpose of direct U.S.-North Korea meetings would be to encourage the North to come back to the six-party talks.

Yet, Oh's view on China's North Korea policy is supported by the International Crisis Group (ICG).

The ICG's latest report found that China separated North Korea's nuclear issues from bilateral ties and that there was no major shift in China's supportive policy toward North Korea in the wake of a series of provocations by Pyongyang this year.

According to Oh, both the United States and China, who do not trust each other, are racing to expand their influence on the Korean Peninsula, and their competition has played a role in the lingering status quo - a divided Korea -- on the peninsula.

"South Korea losing its footing in terms of the North's nuclear issue is another consequence of those two nations' game on the Korean peninsula," he said.

Prof. Hong Sung-ki of Ajou University said power states' preference of maintaining the status quo has only helped the North Korean regime survive.

"One should keep in mind that only a stable and strong unified Korea will be a sustainable solution to peaceful Northeast Asia. And South Korea should convince those nations to share the belief through diplomacy," Hong said.

The experts put forth a procedural unification roadmap that starts with the reconstruction of the North Korean economy and ends with unification.

The four-stage plan they unveiled requires the two Koreas to follow a preparation period in North Korea in the first stage, modernization in the second, industrialization in the third and finally unification.

hkang@koreatimes.co.kr