Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha apparently went too far in talking about a potential lifting of sanctions imposed on North Korea for its deadly attack on a South Korean naval ship in 2010. No one knows better than Kang that such a discussion could send the wrong message to Pyongyang because the Kim Jong-un regime has yet to take any substantial step toward denuclearization.
During an annual National Assembly audit and inspection of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Wednesday, Kang said the government is reviewing whether to lift its sanctions against the North. She made the remarks when asked by Rep. Lee Hae-chan, chairman of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), about Seoul's independent sanctions against Pyongyang.
The sanctions in question were imposed May 24, 2010, about two months after a North Korean submarine torpedoed the South's warship Cheonan in the West Sea. The attack sank the ship, killing 46 sailors. Joint investigations by civilian and military experts, both local and international, concluded the North Korean military made the provocation. Yet the North has continued to deny the conclusion.
The sanctions include a ban on trade with and investment in the North. They also prevent North Korean vessels from navigating through South Korean territorial waters. They overlap with U.N.-led sanctions against the North for its nuclear and missile tests. The Kim regime has certainly sought to lift the sanctions, buoyed by the growing mood of detente between the two Koreas as well as between the U.S. and the North.
However, it is still too early to consider the easing or lifting of whatever sanctions imposed by Seoul or the U.N. Security Council. Pyongyang has done little to give up its nuclear and missile programs. The South cannot and should not lift its own sanctions unless the North takes meaningful and credible measures to denuclearize. This stance is in line with the Trump administration's firm position that sanctions remain in place until the North's denuclearization.
If the South removes sanctions independently well ahead of the resolution of the North Korean nuclear issue, it would weaken the alliance between Seoul and Washington. The Moon Jae-in government may risk playing into the hands of the Kim regime which is trying to put sanctions relief before denuclearization.
No one can overestimate the importance of closer cooperation between the South and the U.S. in realizing the shared goal of dismantling the North's nuclear arsenal completely and irreversibly. There should be no daylight between the two allies as far as the nuclear problem and sanctions are concerned.
President Moon, who has been playing as an active mediator between Trump and Kim over the denuclearization talks, may want to restart the suspended Mount Geumgang tourism project or reopen the closed Gaeseong Industrial Complex even before the North starts denuclearizing. But there is no reason to rush. Inter-Korean cooperation and exchanges should go hand in hand with progress in the North's denuclearization.