Foreign policy has long taken a backseat in presidential elections in Korea. Like elsewhere in the world, voters here are preoccupied with economic issues ― jobs and living standards. Add to this the Lee Myung-bak administration’s do-nothing policy on North Korea, and Koreans face a lost half decade in inter-Korean relations.
Pyongyang is little better. A nine-point ``questionnaire” announced by the North’s National Defense Commission Thursday shows it would rather wait out the Lee administration. At least half of the nine questions and demands, which came as the North’s answer to Washington’s calls for inter-Korean reconciliation as a precondition for improved U.S.-North Korea ties, are hardly acceptable for Seoul.
It is a cold comfort to see Pyongyang, which had vowed not to deal with the incumbent government in Seoul, ease its stance somewhat at the behest of the United States by offering conditions for talks.
So the government’s categorical rejection of the North Korean demands as ``unreasonable” is understandable but leaves some points to ponder. It is unthinkable of course for Seoul to stop pressing for denuclearization of North Korea or repeal National Security Laws right away.
Some conditions put forth by Pyongyang, however, are worthy of study, such as the implementation of the agreements made at two inter-Korean summits and reinvigorating inter-Korean exchanges and cooperation. The government had better favorably consider making replies to these questions. This is especially necessary to prove the inter-Korean ``flexibility,” emphasized by Unification Minister Yu Woo-ik, is not an excuse only to wait for the other side to move first.
After all, the current inter-Korean impasse started when President Lee, contrary to his campaign pledges, ignored all accords of the summits. The time has long past for Lee to solve the problems he himself created.
Many Koreans still suppose that if a Democrat was elected as president of the U.S. in 2000 he would have continued Bill Clinton’s engagement policy. They remember how Republican President George W. Bush insulted his much older South Korean counterpart and his Sunshine Policy. The ongoing U.S. Republican primaries show most of the GOP presidential contenders are as uninterested as or even more indifferent to the Korean Peninsula than Bush. For President Barack Obama, too, inter-Korean issues have always been on the back burner.
All this shows Koreans, both South and North, must solve their problems by themselves. Particularly North Korea has always called for solving Korean problems between the Koreas but regarded South Korea as little more than an entrance to America.
The new North Korean leadership might need some time to consolidate the power of Kim Jong-un. But turning to an excessively hard-line stance against the South gives the impression of avoiding reality as camouflage for no strategy, while making it difficult to reopen a relationship with the next South Korean government. Pyongyang should positively respond to the calls for change from all surrounding powers, upholding the will of its deceased leader.
South Korean leaders, both conservatives and liberals, need to coordinate their stances on North Korea. Right-wing politicians should recognize the need for peaceful coexistence, reconciliation and cooperation and humanitarian aid. Liberals for their part have to agree on the need for opposing nuclear programs, hereditary power succession and human rights abuses in the North.
The new South Korean president should be the one who can solve ideological conflicts and shape unified stance on inter-Korean matters. Unlike any other countries in the world, a top leader in this country must be able to pursue reunification goal by unifying domestic opinions first.