New Leader’s North Korea Policy Faces Hurdles
By Yoon Won-sup
Staff Reporter
President-elect Lee Myung-bak's North Korea policy will face its first test in February and March as North Korea usually requests provision of fertilizer in late January and Lee will likely visit the United States in March to coordinate the policy.
The next government will continue providing humanitarian aid to North Korea such as rice and fertilizer on condition of the North's cooperation in the displaced families' meetings or South Koreans abducted to the North, according to the presidential transition team.
Rep. Park Jin of the Grand National Party, who will assume the position of foreign affairs chief on the team, once said that though the new government will conduct humanitarian aid based on reciprocity, it will link it to the progress of the nuclear talks.
It is a tougher policy than the current government's engaging policy but the transition team called the ``Sunshine Policy'' a failure.
Once Pyongyang requests the fertilizer from the current government, the government will have to consult with the transition team. So the decision of the team will draws attention to its opposition to just giving aid without receiving something.
Since North Korea's request of fertilizer means the beginning of the year's inter-Korean relations, the reaction of the incoming government will be a stepping stone for its North Korea policy.
Following the first inter-Korean summit in 2000, South Korea has provided 400,000 tons of rice and 300,000 tons of fertilizer to North Korea every year. The amount of this year's aid is not yet decided, according to the government.
A much more important test for the Lee administration is North Korea's nuclear weapons issue. North Korea's unfulfilled declaration of all its nuclear programs by 2007 puts the new government in a difficult situation.
If the deadlock on the nuclear issue continues, the hardliners in Washington will voice their opinion more loudly to the Bush administration. So Lee may be faced to deal with the tougher task of managing the nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula.
Bruce Klingner, senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, recently said the Bush administration will face more criticism if North Korea keeps delaying the declaration and that atmosphere has changed regarding the nuclear issue in Washington.
If the declaration is not made in a ``correct and complete'' way before Lee's summit with Bush in the United States most possibly in March, the meeting will likely focus on measures of pressing North Korea.
Washington indirectly asked Seoul to reconsider the inter-Korean economic cooperation projects such as Gaeseong Industrial Complex and tourism in Mt. Geumgang, North Korea in 2006.
North Korea usually holds a meeting with senior officials of the government, the political party and other organizations to discuss South Korea policy of the year in January or February.
However, Pyongyang will likely remain silent this year as it has not officially responded to the President-elect yet.