Sidelining South
North Korea Should Discard Outdated Strategy
There are growing signs of a thaw in the chilly relations between the Unites States and North Korea after Pyongyang handed over a declaration of its nuclear activities last week. The communist state also blew up the cooling tower of its Yongbyon nuclear reactor. In return, President George W. Bush lifted trade sanctions on Pyongyang and began the process of removing it from the U.S. blacklist of terrorism sponsoring countries.
On Monday, Bush also signed a bill to finance the disablement of North Korea's nuclear facilities over the next five years. The bill earmarked $15 million in energy aid to North Korea. The U.S. and four other countries in the six-nation deunclearization talks are to provide 950,000 tons of heavy fuel oil to Pyongyang in exchange for its nuclear disarmament.
A U.S. ship carrying 37,000 tons of wheat arrived in North Korea on Sunday, the first installment of 500,000 tons of food aid promised by Washington to the famine-stricken country. State Department spokesman Tom Casey made it clear that the humanitarian assistance is not linked to any political considerations. However, pundits said the food supply reflected a series of latest developments related to the North's denuclearization steps, brightening prospects for mending ties between Washington and Pyongyang.
Ostensibly South Korea has no reason to oppose the looming North Korea-U.S. rapprochement, which it believes would have positive ramifications on the inter-Korean relations. But the Lee Myung-bak administration is increasingly uneasy about the warming mood because it feels left out in the cold. In fact, the North is returning to its outdated strategy of sidelining the South in its attempt to have direct talks with the United States.
The Kim Jong-il regime has boycotted all South-North talks since President Lee's inauguration in February, criticizing him for linking inter-Korean cooperation to Pyongyang's progress in denuclearization. It is regrettable that the Seoul-Pyongyang ties have been rapidly strained, while the U.S. is offering an olive branch to North Korea. What's more disappointing is that Pyongyang turned down Seoul's offer to supply 50,000 tons of corn in food aid to starving North Koreans.
How could the North refuse humanitarian aid from the South, while accepting wheat supply from the U.S.? Does the dictatorial regime believe it can go without assistance from Seoul because the U.S. and other countries commit to provide food aid? Where is the North's catchphrase of ``Let's work together, we brethrens"? North Korea had extracted a huge sum of economic assistance from South Korea over the past 10 years under the liberal governments of Presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun. But now it turns their back on the conservative Lee government.
Furthermore, the Kim Jong-il regime is trying hard to tame the Lee administration in a bid to force the President to give up his give-and-take North Korea policy. This attempt is apparently aimed at turning the clock back to the ``good old days" of the Sunshine Policy of active engagement. Bowing to pressure from the North, Lee's policymakers are hinting at easing his reciprocity-oriented policy. But such a change is only a stopgap measure. First of all, the North should change itself and discard its outmoded strategy of marginalizing the South.