A glimpse of hope for mending frayed inter-Korean ties has turned into disappointment as Pyongyang’s delegates stormed out of the preliminary military talks with Seoul on Wednesday. South Korea had better not have any more anticipation about a change of mood from North Korea.
It is regrettable that the world’s last Stalinist country has still stuck to its outdated tactics of making peace overtures after provocations. It turned out that the North’s recent initiative for dialogue is nothing but deception. We cannot but express grave concerns about its attempt to shirk its responsibility for sinking the South Korean warship Cheonan last March and shelling the border island of Yeonpyeong in November.
It can be inferred that the Kim Jong-il regime has no genuine intention of sitting at the table to discuss how to lessen tension on the peninsula and move toward reconciliation. Instead, the North wants to use the talks as a leverage to promote its propaganda against the South. Against this backdrop, the communist state has continued to deny its involvement in the two acts of aggression that claimed 46 sailors, two marines and two civilians.
How could the North’s delegates even claim that the shelling was “legitimate” because the South provoked it first by holding a live-fire drill near Yeonpyeong Island in the tense West Sea? It is also nonsense to claim the Cheonan tragedy was a plot against Pyongyang orchestrated by Seoul and Washington. In a word, the North has revealed its true colors that were camouflaged under the cloak of disguised peace. Pyongyang should realize it has nothing to gain but much to lose from its denial tactics and deceptive policy of passing the buck.
U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Crowley hit the nail on the head when he described the North’s walkout as a “missed opportunity” to demonstrate its sincerity and willingness to engage in dialogue. The two days of meetings were the first cross-border contact since the artillery attack on the inhabited island. They were initiated by the North to make preparations for high-level defense talks. Now, it is hard to expect Pyongyang to return to the negotiating table anytime soon. The breakdown of the dialogue has dealt a setback to efforts by the U.S. and China to restart the six-party talks for the North’s denuclearization.
Seoul and its allies should stand firm on the two conditions to keep the ball rolling. The first one is to ensure the North is held accountable for what it did to the South. Further talks are meaningless unless Pyongyang admits and apologizes for its provocations. The second is to make sure that the recalcitrant state will display sincerity in taking a path to denuclearization before reviving the six-party process. Despite the gloomy prospects, Seoul needs to keep the door open to inter-Korean talks with strategic patience.