Put it on front burner

Seoul ought to provide momentum for nuclear bargaining

Presidents Park Geun-hye and Barack Obama have just agreed _ as expected _ to do virtually nothing regarding North Korea’s nuclear program

for the time being

At a news conference after their summit on Friday, Park said that North Korea has finished preparations for its fourth nuclear test. Instead of trying to prevent this, however, the two leaders repeated previous warnings of tougher

sanction

s. It was as if Seoul and Washington had called Pyongyang’s bluff.

North Korea struck back _ also as expected _ criticizing the summit, especially the South Korean leader, in venomous and vulgar rhetoric. Chances appear to be getting increasingly slimmer of President Park’s ``unification-is-bonanza” theory and other peace initiatives contained in her speech in Dresden, Germany, becoming a reality.

Satellite photos indicate that the North may explode another nuclear device within one or two weeks. If these predictions prove to be true, it will lead to stepped-up sanctions from the international community, which in turn will

aggravate

the reclusive regime’s economic hardship even further but not weaken _ rather enhance _ Pyongyang’s determination to become a nuclear power and become recognized as such by the rest of the world. Washington and Seoul have been, and will be, helping it.

President Obama’s lack of eagerness to solve North Korea’s nuclear issue is deplorable but not entirely incomprehensible, as South Koreans see it. No sooner had the U.S. attempted to

withdraw

from Iraq and Afghanistan, than America’s hands became full with new diplomatic problems in Syria and Ukraine. And Washington is finding it more tempting to focus on making Iran

abandon

its nuclear ambitions, before Tehran conducts a nuclear test, too.

This page has said that solving the matter of the North’s nuclear program will be easier than Iran’s once the U.S. decides to do so, not least because, unlike the Middle East, no regional powers, not even Pyongyang’s biggest ally, China, want to see a nuclear-armed North Korea. By making clear his intention to adhere to ``strategic patience _ which even a number of U.S. experts describe as close to a complete failure _ President Obama has all but decided to let Pyongyang emerge as a new nuclear power, despite the U.S. leader’s declared ideal of a nuclear-free world.

True, the U.S. has its own strategic priorities, which a far smaller ally such as South Korea cannot alter.

What’s far more difficult to understand for South Koreans is their own government’s strategy. President Park has successfully differentiated herself from her predecessor’s diplomatic policy of antagonizing both North Korea and China in undue, one-sided clinging to the U.S. Yet it’s not certain whether Park’s telephone conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping has deterred the North’s allegedly impending nuclear test or not. What’s certain is her personal friendship with the Chinese leader will never be able to hinder Pyongyang’s course of actions for long.

All this shows why Seoul has to be most active in providing and prolonging momentum for resuming multilateral discussions to denuclearize the communist regime. There is no other way for the South to exercise even a limited diplomatic leverage in this part of the world but to resolve the nuclear crisis and improve inter-Korean ties. Dreaming about unification should be the next step.

This is The Korea Times editorial for Tuesday, April 29, 2014.

※ 다음에 나오는 문제들은 본 기사에 나오는 중요한 어휘들로 구성된 토익, 토플, 텝스 기출 및 예상 문제입니다.

※ Choose the one word or phrase that best keeps the meaning of the highlighted part or fill in the blank with a suitable one.

1.Being busy with my work, I cannot call at his house

for the present

① at present

② for the time being

③ up to the present

④ the present time

2. The President felt that if he prohibited importation of that country's goods, the

would get the country to stop hurting its citizens.

① measure

② development

③ transformation

④ position

3. The continuous music on special-fare trains

exacerbates

my feelings.

① excites

② aggravates

③ disciplines

④ obliterates

4. At the battle of Waterloo, Napoleon's forces had to

retreat

since they had lost the battle.

① attack

② pursue

③ withdraw

④ intercept

⑤ none

5. He

forsook

the comfort of staying in the hotel room.

① enjoyed

② abandoned

③ expected

④ deteriorated

⑤ requested

[해설 및 정답]

1. [번역] 나의 일로 바쁘기 때문에 나는

당분간

그의 집을 방문할 수 없다.

[어휘] ① 현재는 ③ 현재(지금)까지 ④ 현재(시간)

[정답] ②

2. [번역] 그 대통령은 만일 그가 그 나라 제품의 수입을 금지시킨다면, 그러한

제재 조치

로 해서 그 나라가 자국민들을 해치는 일을 중단하게 할 것이라 생각했다.

[정답] ①

3. [번역] 전쟁이 보다 장기화되면 전선에 투입된 (백인에 대해) 불균형적으로 흑인들의 수가 많음으로 하여 인종간의 긴장을 더욱

악화시킬

것이고, 이는 국내적으로 미국에 해로울 것이다.

4. [번역] 워털루 전투에서, 나폴레옹의 군대는 그 전투에서 패배했기 때문에

철수할

수밖에 없었다.

[정답] ③

5. [번역] 그는 그 호텔방에 머무는 편안함을