Summit Starts
We Expect Substantial Progress in Inter-Korean Ties
President Roh Moo-hyun will leave for Pyongyang on Tuesday for a three-day summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. The second inter-Korean summit will carry not only symbolic meaning but also open the way for national reconciliation. About 60 years of division and confrontation tell us that inter-Korean relations will not see a sudden breakthrough from such a one-time political stunt.
So, we must not have too high expectations for the summit. We hope Roh and Kim will produce substantial results to help ease tensions, build mutual trust and promote permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula. The summit is the second of its kind following the June 2000 historic meeting between former President Kim Dae-jung and Kim Jong-il. The first meeting was quite symbolic because the top leaders of the two Koreas had never held face-to-face talks until then. And it represented a culmination of the South Korean president's ``Sunshine Policy'' of engagement with North Korea.
However, the second meeting should be different from the first one. People were euphoric about better ties and further economic cooperation with the North right after the first summit. But Pyongyang went back to square one following U.S. President George W. Bush's hard-line policy toward it. The architecture of the Sunshine Policy also came under criticism for buying the summit for $500 million that was secretly transferred to the Stalinist North. The fund transfer scandal tarnished the image of Kim Dae-jung who won the Nobel Peace Prize for the landmark summit.
President Roh can learn a valuable lesson from the first summit and should not repeat the mistakes made by Kim. First of all, he must refrain from attempting to get political gains or seeking personal ambitions by taking advantage of the summit, especially ahead of the Dec. 19 presidential election. People do not want to listen to empty political slogans. They are disillusioned at sugarcoated packages of big-budget economic aid for the North. Thus, Roh will have to focus on concrete steps to make actual progress in improving inter-Korean ties.
During the summit, Roh is expected to seek a joint declaration to usher in a peace regime on the peninsula. He is also likely to discuss ways of signing a peace treaty to replace the 1953 armistice, to which North Korea, the United States and China are parties. It is necessary for Roh and Kim to agree on actual steps for building mutual confidence and easing military and security tensions. For this, the two leaders ought to put North Korea's nuclear issue on the front burner. They must keep in mind that a peace regime is meaningless without denuclearization of the peninsula. The President also needs to carefully deal with possible thorny issues, including the redrawing of the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the virtual sea border between the South and North.
Roh is predicted to offer large-scale economic cooperation programs to Kim. He has already floated the idea of creating an ``inter-Korean economic community'' designed to bring prosperity to both South and North Korea. The economic packages could include the construction of another inter-Korean industrial park similar to the Gaeseong Industrial Complex, and the building-up of the North's public infrastructure. Such projects are expected to step up cooperation and exchange between the two Koreas. But they will also put a massive financial burden on the South Korean government and people. So, Roh must be careful in committing to such sumptuous projects. He is required to get some rewards from Kim in return for them.
Roh will walk across the Military Demarcation Line on his way to Pyongyang Tuesday morning. He will become the first South Korean leader to cross the world's most heavily fortified border on foot. We hope this step will help settle peace and promote national reconciliation. We expect Roh to return home with concrete results from the summit.