Diplomacy, including inter-Korean relations, was not the most important issue of the 18th presidential election. Voters and candidates focused on the economy and welfare, as in other leadership ballots across the world.
This should change in the new government despite, or rather because of, the dire economic situation and urgent need for recovery. The state of international politics throughout Northeast Asia leaves Seoul no other option but to put top priority on diplomacy and national security.
North Korea’s challenge, buoyed by its improving nuclear capacity and rising status of its patron, China, will be more ``serious, complicated and diverse,” as predicted by a recent report of the Korea National Diplomatic Academy. Japan will change itself from a potential to overt military power leaning unabashedly to the right. In the bigger picture, the United States and China will vie for global hegemony more fiercely within this region than anywhere else in the world.
All this means 2013 will be a year in which new leaders in the Koreas, China and Japan will experience testing of their diplomatic capabilities.
President-elect Park Geun-hye faces both crisis and opportunity in terms of the inter-Korean relationship. She has seen the limitations of both liberal and conservative approaches, and should return to the right mixture of carrots and sticks when dealing with the skeptical and distrustful regime in the North.
However difficult the process may be, Seoul should start to move toward reunification to secure Korea’s rightful space among its giant neighbors, and this should be its starting year. By more actively approaching North Korea, Park needs to ease security concerns first. Inter-Korean détente will not only produce peace dividends by reducing military spending but also open up the last huge land of economic opportunity for Seoul.
In response to Park’s campaign pledge of a ``Korea process,” which calls for restoring trust between the Koreas in order to move forward, Pyongyang demanded an explanation as to how it is different from the failed denuclearization-first policy of President Lee Myung-bak. This is one of the questions the new President should answer upon taking office. It’s time to move from the general to the particular. The key lies in how Park and her aides can persuade Pyongyang that reforms and openness will not threaten its established order.
No less important is to simultaneously push for denuclearizing the North and start to convert the 60-year-old armistice into a peaceful regime. Crucial throughout the whole process is how to win popular consensus and implement it through bipartisan agreement.
Park’s appointment of her national security team, including foreign and unification ministers, will explain much about her ideas and plans in this most important area of state administration. We hope to see more flexible, experienced and long-term policymakers on her list.