DP leader calls for reconcilatory steps toward NK

By Kim Young-jin

Main opposition leader Sohn Hak-kyu Wednesday urged the Lee Myung-bak administration to bolster exchanges with North Korea in a bid to speed cross-border reconciliation, saying such efforts are key to eventual unification.

Speaking with a group of religious leaders who recently visited Pyongyang, the head of the Democratic Party cited the joint Gaeseong Industrial Complex (GIC) as an example of such cooperation and said he believed the North also wants reconciliation.

Tensions remain high following the communist state’s two deadly provocations last year.

But recent moves have helped thaw relations, including two rounds of denuclearization talks between the sides. Seoul is implementing a more “flexible” approach to the North, allowing greater civilian-level exchange.

On the same day, the North warned against what it calls Seoul’s “psychological warfare,” referring to anti-regime pamphlets floated across the border in helium balloons by activists.

“This psychological warfare is an act of war,” the state mouthpiece Rodong Sinmun said, two days after defectors and other activists sent balloons carrying 200,000 anti-North Korea leaflets on the same day the North observed the 66th anniversary of its ruling Workers’ Party.

The North is very sensitive to any outside criticism of its leader and has made similar verbal threats against the South over leaflets in recent years.

It has also accused Seoul of transmitting anti-regime propaganda broadcasts into the North.using the frequency bandwidth of the North’s state media since August.

Pyongyang, which bristles at any dissemination of information about its regime or the outside world among its people, has recently stepped up its rhetoric against such actions.

Despite such disputes, the sides appear to be making efforts to warm ties in a bid to resume multilateral denuclearization talks. On Monday, Seoul announced it wouldresume construction of new factories at the GIC in North Korea, after such projects were halted last year in response to the North’s sinking of the warship Cheonan.