Seoul seeks high-level contacts with NK

By Park Si-soo

The Ministry of Unification said Thursday that it will seek to restore a high-level communications channel with North Korea this year as part of efforts to put moribund inter-Korean relations onto a normal track.

The ministry also said in a policy report for the New Year to President Lee Myung-bak that it plans to discuss with the North ways to resume exchange programs in the fields of arts and sports, and humanitarian aid.

The move comes after President Lee signaled a departure from his hard-line approach to the Stalinist state in his New Year speech on Jan. 2, saying the “window of opportunity” with the North is always open.

“I hope North Korea will open the window of opportunity by making the right decision,” Unification Minister Yu Woo-ik told reporters. “Our door for dialogue with the North is open.”

Yu urged the North Korean regime to come to the negotiating table with the South, saying, “If North Korea takes the road (toward dialogue with the South), we will help it full-heartedly as a brother country.”

He added if dialogue was established, his ministry could discuss all pending issues between the two Koreas.

Lee has remained tough on Pyongyang since he took office in February 2008, collaborating with international sanctions on the nuclear-armed North. Two deadly attacks on South Korea by the North Korean military in 2010 further frayed inter-Korean relations.

Lee has been pressed to soften up his hard-line policy following the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il last month, which offered what many analysts here called a “critical juncture” to restart Seoul-Pyongyang relations.

The ministry said the high-level communications channel, if restored, will make it easier for the two sides to resolve their diplomatic deadlock, caused by the two attacks that killed 50 South Koreans.

President Lee said during the speech that the government was not seeking North Korea’s collapse, a move apparently aimed at dispelling North Korea’s distrust of its rival.

“We will neither seek to achieve reunification through absorption nor attempt to collapse the North,” Lee said. “The North should also quickly abandon the anachronistic thought of reunifying the peninsula under communism.”

The unification ministry said it will work closely with police and other law enforcement authorities to prevent the North from wielding influence on the National Assembly and presidential elections in April and December, respectively.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in a separate policy report to Lee that it will put its diplomatic focus on helping maintain stability on the Korean Peninsula as the North is undergoing a sensitive transition of power to its untested new leader in his late 20s.

To that end, Seoul will bolster its already strong alliance with the United States to the “strongest ever” level while deepening a strategic partnership with China, Japan and Russia, the ministry said.

“The main goal of diplomatic policies this year is the stable management of the situation on the Korean Peninsula,” it said. “The government will strengthen cooperation with involved nations, including the U.S., China, Russia and Japan.”

It said the Seoul-Washington free trade pact, ratified by parliaments of both countries last year and now awaiting effectuation, will help strengthen bilateral ties.

Since the Dec. 17 death of the North’s longtime leader Kim Jong-il, the transfer of power to his third son Kim Jong-un seems to have progressed smoothly. However, experts did not rule out the possibility of an internal power struggle triggered by military and political elite.

Some analysts cautiously warn that the young new leader may launch some form of provocation this year to consolidate his grip on power.

The report reaffirmed that if North Korea abandons core parts of its nuclear weapons program, South Korea and other concerned states will provide the destitute North with large-scale humanitarian aid and guarantee the regime’s safety — an idea meant to lead to the North’s denuclearization, called the “grand bargain.”

Meanwhile, the ministry said it will endeavor to upgrade the national brand through successful hosting of the second Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul in March and other public diplomacy.

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