By Kim Young-jin
North Korea is ratcheting up its rhetoric against the Lee Myung-bak administration’s “flexible” policy on cross-border ties, slamming the stance as pandering despite Seoul’s most recent approval of aid to the impoverished state.
Lee has been exercising a softer line toward Pyongyang since September, when he tapped close aide Yu Woo-ik as Unification Minister, including expanding humanitarian activities and cultural exchanges.
The South “is emphasizing a flexible policy…but there is no change in its confrontational stance,” a North Korean official said Sunday in a statement carried by state media.
“It is using silly word tricks to deceive the public by acting as if they are interested in improving ties between the both sides,” the statement added, suggesting Lee was trying to stave off lame-duck status.
The remark came even as the Unification Ministry on Monday announced it would donate $5.65 million to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to help infants, children and pregnant women in the North.
The sides have been trying since July to improve ties as a preliminary step toward resuming multilateral denuclearization talks, easing tensions after the North’s two attacks on the South last year.
In September, Lee named Yu to replace Hyun In-taek, the architect of his hard line approach and a favorite target for the North’s harsh comments, seen as a move to break the ongoing stalemate ahead of parliamentary and presidential polls next year. Yu has gradually expanded cultural exchanges and northward-bound humanitarian aid.
Seoul and Washington want Pyongyang to halt its uranium enrichment program in a verifiable manner and improve North-South relations before the six-party talks on its denuclearization resume. The North, however, is demanding the talks resume without preconditions.
Analysts say the North appears to be growing frustrated with the lack of aid from the South and elsewhere. The regime is thought to be doing all it can to secure food and other handouts ahead of next April, when it will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of its founder Kim Il-sung.
Last week, it reverted back to menacing tones, threatening to turn Cheong Wa Dae into a “sea of fire” in response to military drills near the tense West Sea border. The maneuvers were held to mark the first anniversary of the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island, which killed four.
Watchers say that the North is liable to alternate pressure and peace offensives to secure as much aid as it can through inter-Korean and multilateral channels.
Meanwhile, the ministry said Seoul’s donation to UNICEF would focus on providing vaccines and other supplies for malnourished children. The move follows its resumption of medical aid to the North through the World Health Organization.
Unification Ministry spokesman Choi Boh-seon said in a press conference that the move was in line with Seoul’s stance of maintaining humanitarian aid for the most vulnerable “regardless of the political situation."
Minister Yu has said further shipments of rice aid, cut off after the shelling incident, are impossible until Pyongyang apologizes for last year’s attacks.
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