By Kang Seung-woo
North Korea’s withdrawal of a proposal to hold talks with South Korea on restarting a family reunion program is seen as a protest against the Park Geun-hye administration’s inter-Korean policy, Pyongyang watchers said Friday.
“The North views family reunions and the reopening of the Mt. Geumgang tourism program as identical issues, but the South agreed to open talks only on meetings between separated family members, which the former believes is a unilateral decision,” said Cheong Seong-chang, a senior fellow at the Sejong Institute.
“If the North accepts the South’s decision, it could face internal criticism for being too concessionary.”
North Korea had reaped rewards for the reunion program previously, including humanitarian aid from the South, but the incumbent government has distanced itself from giving financial assistance“thoughtlessly.”
“North Korea got the impression from the rejection of talks on Mt. Geumgang tours that the South was not in favor of them,” said Chang Yong-seok, a senior researcher at the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies affiliated with Seoul National University.
Pyongyang offered restarting a temporary family reunion program from July 19. at a Red Cross meeting Wednesday. It also suggested talks on July 17 about restarting tours to the scenic resort on its east coast.
The South immediately accepted the North’s proposal for family reunions, but requested that talks on the tourism project be postponed until current negotiations on reopening the suspended Gaeseong Industrial Complex (GIC) were completed.
The North stopped all access to the North’s border city from the South on April 3, citing provocations from Seoul against its sovereign dignity, and subsequently withdrew all 53,000 North Korean workers employed by the 123 South Korean companies operating there on April 9.
The two Koreas have held two rounds of talks in the past week to work out details to reopen the complex, but failed to reach an agreement. They will meet again next week to seek to iron out differences.
Seoul is pushing for strong safeguards to prevent another shutdown of the GIC by the North. It is also demanding a North Korean apology for causing considerable financial and non-financial damage to South Korean companies. The 123 firms with factories in Gaeseong have claimed 1.05 trillion won ($933 million) in losses due to the shutdown of operations.
“Seoul will not accept circumstances reverting to the way they were before the crisis,” Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Hyung-suk said in a briefing on Friday.
Pyongyang, on the other hand, wants an immediate resumption of operations at the complex and insisted that South Korea is more to blame for the situation.
There is speculation that next week’s third-round of talks will not bear fruit, given that one of the North’s primary requests has been turned down.
“North Korea is likely to keep pace with the South about the industrial park based on the latter’s attitude (about the cross-border tour),” Chang said.
Despite clouds over Gaeseong, the reclusive state is expected to continue to press for inter-Korean talks.
“The North is trying to take improve inter-Korean relations in order to patch up ties with the United States and China,” Cheong said.
Chang noted that considering North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is stressing economic development, the regime is not likely to return to ratcheting up tensions on the peninsula as it did in March and April. Rather, it is expected to focus on talks as part of softening the blame from the international community.
Meanwhile, more than 170 South Korean factory managers visited the industrial park Friday to bring home goods and raw materials, marking the first time that the North has allowed South Koreans to retrieve finished goods and supplies since April.