Role of Unification Minister Downgraded
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
Cheong Wa Dae Saturday launched a new presidential coordination body on foreign and security affairs, replacing the previous National Security Council (NSC), officials of the presidential office said.
The new coordination body reflects a major shift in the Lee Myung-bak government's policy priority from inter-Korean relations to international cooperation, as it is headed by the foreign minister, said experts on foreign affairs and North Korea.
``The Cabinet-level foreign affairs and security council has been launched to replace the NSC, which was recently abolished following a revision NSC management law,'' a Cheong Wa Dae official said.
Members include the minister of foreign affairs and trade, minister of unification, minister of national defense, director of the National Intelligence Service and the top presidential secretary on foreign affairs and trade, he said.
President Lee has pledged that he will try to resolve North Korea's nuclear problem in close cooperation with the international community, instead of dealing with the issue as an inter-Korean matter.
The previous liberal governments of Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun had said the nuclear issue should be resolved both through direct talks between the two Koreas and six-party talks involving the United States, the two Koreas, China, Japan and Russia.
But the two administrations put more priority on improving inter-Korean ties under their flagship ``sunshine'' policy toward engaging the communist northern brethren than on pressing the North to give up its nuclear weapons program in cooperation with the global community.
Such attitudes often caused policy conflicts on the North's nuclear problem between foreign affairs, security-related ministries, or with the United States.
Inter-Korean relations have warmed following summit talks in 2000 and 2007, but the deadlock due to Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program has continued.
North Korea missed a Dec. 31 deadline to disable its main atomic plants and declare all its nuclear programs under the denuclearization-for-assistance pact signed on Feb. 13, 2007.
Under the deal with the five participating countries, the North is to receive one million tons of heavy fuel oil or its equivalent in aid and other concessions from the five other nations in return for disabling its key nuclear facilities and providing a list of its nuclear activities.
But the communist state failed to provide a complete list of its past and current nuclear activities, including an alleged uranium-enrichment program.
In an apparent move to fulfill his pledges, the Lee government reduced the roles of the Unification Ministry, while expanding those of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, under a plan endorsed by the National Assembly last month.
The government also named moderate Kim Ha-joong, former ambassador to China, as unification minister.