Suspended tour to Mt. Geumgang will be high on agenda
By Yi Whan-woo
The two Koreas are expected to hold negotiations over the South's suspended tour program to the North's Mount Geumgang Resort during vice-ministerial talks, Friday, analysts said Thursday.
They speculate that Pyongyang will use the bilateral dialogue at the Gaeseong Industrial Complex (GIC) in North Korea to press Seoul to resume its tour to the scenic mountain.
The impoverished North has repeatedly demanded the South restart the tour program, which was a major cash cow for Pyongyang until it was suspended in 2008.
Seoul banned the program after a female South Korean visitor, Park Wang-ja, was shot to death by a North Korean soldier for crossing into an off-limits zone.
"I'd say Pyongyang decided to tackle easy-to-solve problems first to carry out the inter-Korean agreement in August, and it appears to have picked the Mount Geumgang tour program on its priority list of those problems," said Kim Yong-hyun, a professor of North Korean Studies at Dongguk University.
Led by Vice Unification Minister Hwang Boo-gi and his North Korean counterpart Jon Jong-su, vice director of the secretariat of North Korea's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, the vice-ministerial talks are taking place in line with a deal reached Aug. 25.
Back then, top-ranking officials of Seoul and Pyongyang agreed to hold reconciliatory dialogue and end military tension between the two.
Kim cited that Pyongyang's state-controlled media, including the Rodong Sinmun and Tongil Shinbo, recently publicized attractions on Mount Geumgang in North Korea's Kangwon Province.
The professor pointed out that the North Korean media outlets have not mentioned Seoul's economic sanctions against Pyongyang since May 24, 2010.
In addition to resuming Mount Geumgang tours, Pyongyang had asked the South to lift the May 2010 sanctions, which prohibit all trading activities except for those at the GIC.
The punitive measures were imposed in retaliation to the North's deadly torpedoing of the South Korean Navy frigate Cheonan in March 2010.
"The fact that Pyongyang is solely focusing on the tour program means it will turn away from cooperating with us if related negotiations do not go well at the GIC," Kim said.
Chang Yong-seok, a senior researcher at the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies at Seoul National University, agreed.
"It should be noted that Pyongyang deliberately did not bring up Seoul's economic sanctions at all during a preparatory meeting on Nov. 26 for the vice-ministerial talks," Chang said.
Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies, said the two Koreas should be ready to discuss the Mount Geumgang tour program in the long term to maintain momentum in implementing the August agreement.
"I don't expect the delegates to strike a deal at once to resume the tours but they at least should agree to hold subsequent meetings and discuss related subjects," Yang said.
He added that Pyongyang in return should be ready to talk about regularizing reunions between families separated by the DMZ and other humanitarian issues.
Seoul has underscored a need to facilitate humanitarian assistance for the repressive regime.
Hwang and Jon will lead three-member delegations.
Hwang led Seoul's investigation of Park's death in 2008. He also served as the inaugural chief of the GIC's inter-Korean economic cooperation office in 2005, a year after the GIC opened.
Jon was a member of the North Korean delegation in a string of inter-Korean dialogues including prime-ministerial-level talks in 2007.
By Yi Whan-woo
The two Koreas are expected to hold negotiations over the South's suspended tour program to the North's Mount Geumgang Resort during vice-ministerial talks, Friday, analysts said Thursday.
They speculate that Pyongyang will use the bilateral dialogue at the Gaeseong Industrial Complex (GIC) in North Korea to press Seoul to resume its tour to the scenic mountain.
The impoverished North has repeatedly demanded the South restart the tour program, which was a major cash cow for Pyongyang until it was suspended in 2008.
Seoul banned the program after a female South Korean visitor, Park Wang-ja, was shot to death by a North Korean soldier for crossing into an off-limits zone.
"I'd say Pyongyang decided to tackle easy-to-solve problems first to carry out the inter-Korean agreement in August, and it appears to have picked the Mount Geumgang tour program on its priority list of those problems," said Kim Yong-hyun, a professor of North Korean Studies at Dongguk University.
Led by Vice Unification Minister Hwang Boo-gi and his North Korean counterpart Jon Jong-su, vice director of the secretariat of North Korea's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, the vice-ministerial talks are taking place in line with a deal reached Aug. 25.
Back then, top-ranking officials of Seoul and Pyongyang agreed to hold reconciliatory dialogue and end military tension between the two.
Kim cited that Pyongyang's state-controlled media, including the Rodong Sinmun and Tongil Shinbo, recently publicized attractions on Mount Geumgang in North Korea's Kangwon Province.
The professor pointed out that the North Korean media outlets have not mentioned Seoul's economic sanctions against Pyongyang since May 24, 2010.
In addition to resuming Mount Geumgang tours, Pyongyang had asked the South to lift the May 2010 sanctions, which prohibit all trading activities except for those at the GIC.
The punitive measures were imposed in retaliation to the North's deadly torpedoing of the South Korean Navy frigate Cheonan in March 2010.
"The fact that Pyongyang is solely focusing on the tour program means it will turn away from cooperating with us if related negotiations do not go well at the GIC," Kim said.
Chang Yong-seok, a senior researcher at the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies at Seoul National University, agreed.
"It should be noted that Pyongyang deliberately did not bring up Seoul's economic sanctions at all during a preparatory meeting on Nov. 26 for the vice-ministerial talks," Chang said.
Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies, said the two Koreas should be ready to discuss the Mount Geumgang tour program in the long term to maintain momentum in implementing the August agreement.
"I don't expect the delegates to strike a deal at once to resume the tours but they at least should agree to hold subsequent meetings and discuss related subjects," Yang said.
He added that Pyongyang in return should be ready to talk about regularizing reunions between families separated by the DMZ and other humanitarian issues.
Seoul has underscored a need to facilitate humanitarian assistance for the repressive regime.
Hwang and Jon will lead three-member delegations.
Hwang led Seoul's investigation of Park's death in 2008. He also served as the inaugural chief of the GIC's inter-Korean economic cooperation office in 2005, a year after the GIC opened.
Jon was a member of the North Korean delegation in a string of inter-Korean dialogues including prime-ministerial-level talks in 2007.
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