In Total Disarray
Lee Should Set Up Firmer Crisis Control System
President Lee Myung-bak faces another political crisis following the shooting of a female South Korean tourist at a scenic mountain resort in North Korea. People were shocked to learn that the government allowed Hyundai Asan, the operator of the Mt. Guemgang tourist project, to send tourists to such a dangerous place without first ensuring their safety.
It seems that the government and Hyundai Asan had no idea that such an occurrence was even possible. The Lee administration cannot avoid criticism that it has done little to make sure South Korean tourists' safe passage to and from their destination in the North. More surprising is that a South-North communication channel, set up after the first inter-Korean summit in 2000, is no longer working. The North even refuses to receive telegraph messages from the South, apparently due to its anger over Lee's hard-line policy toward it.
It is regrettable that the Seoul government cannot find a proper channel to send a strong message of protest against Friday's killing of Park Wang-ja, a 53-year-old housewife from Seoul. North Korea is holding the South responsible for the tragic death, claiming the victim did not follow a list of do's and don'ts for the resort area. It is nonsense that the Kim Jong-il regime makes such a claim, while rejecting the South's request for an investigation into the incident.
The shooting might have been accidental. But it cannot be overlooked because it occurred in a resort developed and financed by a South Korean firm as part of an inter-Korean tourism and economic cooperation project. It goes without saying that the North Korean authorities should do their best to take care of Southern tourists. If the North continues to evade any responsibility ― legal or moral, the Lee administration should reconsider the inter-Korean projects from scratch.
The real problem is that the government is unable to take appropriate and timely action against both the killing and the North's reckless reaction to it. President Lee and his policymakers are now under attack for their inability to make a quick response to the incident. Lee got a briefing on the case eight hours and thirty minutes after the incident. He still had 50 minutes before his scheduled address to the opening session of the National Assembly.
How could the President propose the resumption of inter-Korean dialogue without mentioning anything about the killing of the tourist? The presidential office argued that the speech was one thing and the killing was another. Lee only expressed regret over the death two hours after the address. The government belatedly convened a meeting of security-related ministers the next day to discuss how to cope with the incident. It took the government roughly 11 hours to decide to suspend the Mt. Geumgang tour program.
It is a shame that Lee's proposal for dialogue between the two countries has become a joke in North Korea. The government is in total disarray following public protests against U.S. beef imports. It is also now faced with a diplomatic row over Japan's decision to describe South Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo as Japanese territory in its handbook for schoolteachers. It is imperative the Lee government sets up a firmer crisis control system before it is too late.