Current status of North Korea policy

By Jay Kim

It is said that Kim Jong-il, the chairman of the National Defense Commission of North Korea, has been receiving such luxurious treatment during his visit to China that one wonders if the purpose of his visit is trying to get food aid or going on a junket.

While Kim was traveling China and enjoying great hospitality, the U.S. announced additional sanctions on foreign corporations and individuals suspected of supporting North Korea’s development programs for weapons of mass destruction (WMD), including missiles.

Among the sanctioned are North Korean companies, several Chinese companies and individuals, and the Korea Tangun Trading Corporation, a branch institution of the Second Academy of Sciences of North Korea. Since the U.S. cannot do anything about China’s protection of North Korea, it finally decided to start sanctioning Chinese corporations.

I feel bitter whenever I see Chairman Kim’s visits to China to beg for food. Why not ask South Korea for food aid? Wouldn’t South Korea, where the people share the same blood, food, culture, and language, provide better help than China?

Even in this situation, not only the opposition party but also some majority party lawmakers expressed their opposition to making North Korea’s abandonment of their nuclear program a prerequisite for aid, claiming that the policy of making North Korea pay the price of its provocation through sanctions has failed.

Furthermore, they claimed that political and economic issues should be separated in policies regarding North Korea. They called for resumption of inter-Korean exchange and cooperation projects that have been stopped by imposing sanctions on North Korea for sinking the South Korean warship Cheonan in March 2010.

The sanctions were adopted by South Korea on May 24, nearly two months after the ship attack, and after a year people have various opinions on the matter. However, it would be a disgrace to the souls of those young victims to a provide aid to North Korea without any apology as though such atrocities as the sinking of the Cheonan and the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island had not occurred.

Also, we cannot accept North Korea declining to abandon its nuclear program, ignoring a U.N. resolution and international opinion, while crying for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

Since the 1992 declaration of the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and the 1994 framework agreed upon at Geneva, there have been several meetings to make North Korea abandon its nuclear program, and there have been various economic sanctions on North Korea (including U.N. Security Council Resolution 1874), but none of them have had the desired effect. Instead, they have only led to additional nuclear tests by North Korea.

South Korea alone cannot accept North Korea while ignoring the U.N. resolution to disarm North Korea of nuclear weapons; in fact, the issue of North Korea’s nuclear weapons is up to China, but even though the U.S. has tried to solve the issue through China, the Asian giant refuses to act since they don’t regard North Korea’s nuclear weapons as a threat at all.

I heard that some doubts on the merits of taking troublesome North Korea under its wing were raised among the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party. It is expected that there will be discussions on North Korea at the National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party next year.

I wonder why no statement has come from the South Korea Ministry of Unification. I want to hear what the experts on North Korea in the ministry have to say about this issue: Is setting North Korea’s abandonment of its nuclear program as a prerequisite wrong, and has the policy of sanctioning North Korea failed?

South Korea has nothing to say against China, and even if it had something, it could not. Our society tends to shrink even at a quick look from China toward us; this might be the product of long-standing fear toward China.

Furthermore, China remains South Korea’s biggest trading partner, so we are too afraid to speak out even if China gradually eats away North Korea.

For now, there is no other option but to wait and see what happens, while suppressing our anger. The U.S. expects that it will not be long before North Korea collapses after failing the third-generation succession of power. Now is the very time for us to unite.

Jay Kim is a former U.S. congressman. He serves as chairman of the Washington Korean-American Forum. For more information, visit Kim’s website (www.jayckim.com).