It is regrettable that the Lee Myung-bak administration has only suffered from setbacks in inter-Korean ties without any progress in international efforts to persuade Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons program. Any hope for a better South-North relationship and complete denuclearization appears to remain a pipe dream this year.
Throughout last year, the Kim Jong-il regime of North Korea continued to test the patience of Lee, U.S. President George W. Bush and other world leaders by backpedaling on its commitment to disabling its nuclear facilities. No one can expect a sudden breakthrough in the nuclear issue and inter-Korean relations.
Nuclear envoys from Seoul, Washington, Beijing, Tokyo and Moscow must have been exhausted by the North's nuclear blackmail and its notorious brinkmanship tactics. The communist country has undoubtedly been playing for time to start new negotiations with the incoming U.S. administration of Barack Obama who is to take office Jan. 20. The North's intention could be detected in its joint newspaper editorial marking New Year's Day. The editorial made no hostile comments about the United States, while severely criticizing the South for its tougher policy toward the North.
``The independent foreign policy of our Republic to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula and defend peace and security of Northeast Asia and rest of the world is demonstrating its validity more fully as the days go by,'' said the editorial jointly issued by the North's ruling party and military. It is apparent that the North sees Obama's inauguration as an opportunity to start afresh with the U.S. after eight years of rough negotiations with the conservative Bush administration.
But it might be an illusion for the North to believe it can get more concessions from the Obama government. Instead of anticipating a conciliatory gesture from Washington, North Korea should first change its position to move toward peace and reconciliation. It must give up its outdated Cold War tactics of escalating tensions and brewing hostility on the peninsula by turning the clock back.
It is urgent for Pyongyang to sincerely implement its denuclearization pledges it made during the six-party talks, including the mechanism for verifying the disablement of its nuclear facilities. Besides, the North should immediately return to a dialog with the South to mend the strained inter-Korean ties. We hope the North will give up its anachronistic policy of having direct talks with the U.S. while sidelining the South.