By Kim Se-jeong
Seoul is expected to push Pyongyang to admit responsibility for two serious attacks last year on a South Korean warship and an island at the upcoming inter-Korean military talks, while having a separate dialogue on denuclearization.
Kim Min-seok, spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense, said Friday, “The preparatory talks are likely to be held in February, as the government will notify the North of the venue and the date early next week.”
The talks will be the first contact following working-level military dialogue between the two Koreas last September.
Immediately following a U.S.-China summit, North Korea sent a telegram calling for the high-level talks.
It said they will encompass “all currently pending military issues” including the North’s attacks on the frigate Cheonan and Yeonpyeong Island.
The sinking of the Cheonan cost 46 lives and the artillery bombardment of Yeonpyeong killed four people, including two civilians.
“We want the North to confess to its wrongdoings and to take responsibility for them,” said Chun Hae-sung, a spokesman for the Ministry of Unification.
Experts were cautiously optimistic about the inter-Korean talks but skeptical about whether the North will offer an apology.
Yoo Ho-yeol, a North Korea expert at Korea University, said it’s less likely that the North will take responsibility for the Cheonan attack but that at least it would express condolences for the loss of life.
Yoo said, “During the summit, China showed that it understands the position of South Korea, the U.S. and Japan, that the six-party talks must be preceded by positive steps by the North. So it seems China will continue to pressure the North to make more progress in exchange for economic aid.”
Park Young-ho, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute of National Unification, said the North is in a dire situation where it must secure outside assistance and investment.
Prof. Toshimitsu Shigemura of Waseda University, a Japanese expert on North Korea, recently said that China halted heavy fuel oil provisions to North Korea after the attack on Yeonpyeong to pressure the North. The Pyongyang regime, also in the process of transferring power to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s youngest son, Kim Jong-un, has stated the goal of achieving a “strong and prosperous” nation by 2012.
An anonymous government official told Yonhap News that “the focus of this separate meeting will be to see the North’s willingness for denuclearization prior to the six-party talks that might take place anytime soon.”
James Steinberg, U.S. deputy secretary of state, will travel to Seoul, Beijing and Tokyo next week to follow up on Obama’s meeting with Hu in Washington.
His visit is to “exchange views with senior officials on a wide range of bilateral, regional and global issues, including regional security and recent developments on the Korean Peninsula,” said Philip Crowley, the U.S. State Department spokesman.
Washington welcomed Pyongyang’s proposal for the high-level military talks.
“I think following that, the Republic of Korea agreeing to enter talks with the North Koreans — clearly, conditions were created yesterday that showed the Republic of Korea that China and the United States were aligned in dealing with the aggressions of the North Koreans,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. “I think that is an important step forward.”
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