Koreas should build confidence for summit

Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk

Minister says comfort women deal exceeds Kono Statement

By Oh Young-jin, Yi Whan-woo

More confidence should be built through regular dialogue before an inter-Korean summit is considered, Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se said in a recent interview with The Korea Times.

Yun said the Dec. 28 agreement on comfort women — former sex slaves under Japan’s colonial rule — was more important than any prior pertinent agreement in various aspects, but its success depends on Japan’s faithful implementation.

“We need to remind ourselves that there is a lack of regular dialogue,” Yun said, when asked about prospects of a summit between President Park Geun-hye and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

In his New Year address, Kim left open the possibility for such a meeting, when he said, “I am ready to sit down for a talk with anybody who wishes to speak honestly for peace and unification.”

The minister indicated no haste for a third summit after the two in 2000 and 2007, respectively, saying, “It is important to nurture favorable conditions for substantive dialogue ... the right track is the fast track.”

He urged the North to give up its nuclear weapons as well as its supposed hydrogen bomb development, saying, “Pyongyang is under the illusion that it can simultaneously develop its nuclear programs and its economy."

“Nukes can’t guarantee security ... the opposite is true. It is time for the North to learn a lesson from Iran, which decided to freeze its nuclear programs in return for lifted sanctions; Cuba, which has reopened diplomatic ties with the U.S.; and Myanmar, which relaxed its military rule.”

“The eyes of the world are now on Pyongyang,” Yun said, pointing out that all except the North involved in the six-party talks aimed at dismantling its nuclear weapons programs had reacted positively to resuming dialogue.

Yun, 63, has served as foreign minister since the start of the Park administration in March 2013 and helped establish Park’s reciprocity-based “trustpolitik” toward the North. He was also a senior secretary under the late liberal former President Roh Moo-hyun.

Implementation holds the key

Yun and his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida announced the comfort women agreement in the last week of last year.

Turning to the recent agreement, Yun said it had gone further than any pertinent deals, compared with the 1993 Kono Statement that recognized the use of coercion in recruiting comfort women. It came with the establishment of the Asian Women’s Fund. The other prominent one is the so-called Sasae Proposal, which contains Japan’s apology at an ambassadorial level.

Yun said the latest agreement contained Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s “official and public” apologies, compared with Kono being the Cabinet spokesman, and Sasae, a senior foreign ministry official.

He said a “creative formula” lays in the foundation aimed at restoring the former sex slaves’ honor and healing the wounds of the victims. Korea will run the foundation, which is to receive a 1 billion yen contribution from Japan’s national budget.

The minister repeatedly emphasized the importance of faithful implementation, saying, “Proper implementation is the best measure of any agreement.”

Senior officials from Seoul and Tokyo keep from making references to the deal in what appears to be an unspoken agreement, also indicating the fragility of the deal, which has been under fire from both sides.

Yun also said that the latest deal may or may not set an example for both countries to tackle other outstanding issues such as compensation of Koreans commandeered for Japan’s war effort.

“It is too premature to predict whether this agreement will have a domino effect on other sensitive issues,” he said, clarifying that each outstanding bilateral issue should be dealt with on “its own nature and merit.”

Regarding allegations that Korea was getting close to China at the expense of its alliance with the U.S., he denied their validity, saying a trilateral relationship should not be a zero-sum game.

“Nurturing good ties with both the U.S. and China is not an easy task,” he said, expressing satisfaction on Korea’s decision to join the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the rival to the U.S.-led World Bank, and to support U.S.-led efforts to defend the freedom of navigation against China’s hegemonic moves in South China Sea.

Finally, Yun dismissed leading U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s claim that Korea was taking a “free ride” on the United States for its own defense against the North, calling it “not the prevailing view in the U.S.”

“The Korean government has been sharing the burden (for maintaining U.S. forces), a contribution highly appreciated by the U.S. government,” he said.