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| President Park Geun-hye |
Fresh from the end of the long Chuseok holiday, President Park Geun-hye faces two very difficult tasks ㅡ persuading the opposition to return to the National Assembly and resetting a policy on an unpredictable North Korea.
How to deal with them may determine the success of Park's presidency in its early stages.
The main opposition Democratic Party (DP) has vowed to keep up with its outdoor protests that started early last month to call for a thorough investigation into alleged meddling in last year's presidential election by the National Intelligence Service (NIS).
North Korea suspended reunions of families separated by the Korean War (1950-53), Saturday, citing dubious reasons, merely four days before the event, setting back the Park administration's months of efforts to improve ties.
"The two issues could seriously weigh on President Park and negatively affect her high approval ratings of around 70 percent. The catch is that both are hard to deal with," Prof. Son Tae-gyu at Dankook University said.
"In particular, the North's postponement of the reunions will be a big headache for Park since it completely negates her flagship North Korea policy of engaging it."
Based on the "Korean Peninsula Trust Process," the President has tried to build mutual trust with Pyongyang in several small areas before carrying out mega-sized inter-Korean projects.
Her approach appeared to work because the North made some concessions of late to reopen the inter-Korean joint industrial complex in Gaeseong, which closed in early April amid the spiraling tensions between the two neighbors that are still technically at war.
It marked an about-face for the recalcitrant communist regime, which early this year threatened nuclear war against Seoul and Washington as well as vowing to nullify the armistice that ended the Korean War.
However, this recent progress was upended by the North's unilateral retraction of the reunions, which would have been the first in almost three years.
"Park might have to review her trustpolitik policy from the ground up. Such a strategy can pay off only with a reasonable and predictable partner, but not with a country like North Korea," Son said.
Prof. Shin Yul at Myongji University said that Park is required to focus more on domestic politics.
"Park cannot do much about the North in the short term but she can improve relations with the opposition party to normalize the Assembly," Shin said.
"For example, she can suggest parliament form an entity to talk about reforming the NIS. Then, the DP might stop its street campaign."
Under the stewardship of Chairman Kim Han-gil, the DP has camped out at Seoul Plaza since early August, calling for a thorough and prompt reform of the NIS whose agents are accused of uploading Web postings critical of opposition candidates during the 2012 presidential election.
To terminate the political gridlock, Kim met with Park on Sept. 16 at her invitation, but the outcome worsened the situation as both left the talks empty handed.
Against this backdrop, the DP is presently considering boycotting the Assembly's administrative audits, which are scheduled to start next month.
