By Yi Whan-woo
President Park Geun-hye has continued her “diplomacy of disengagement” on the global stage, turning a deaf ear to calls for adjustment.
President Park delivered a United Nations speech Thursday, in which she showed no signs of reaching out to North Korea or Japan.
In the keynote speech at the U.N. General Assembly in New York, she called for international support for inter-Korean unification, saying it was “abnormal” for the U.N. to have the two Koreas as its member states.
She added that an improvement of North Korea’s human rights situation was crucial.
The reclusive state responded by claiming it guarantees the liberty and freedom of its people.
Inter-Korean relations have been poor since her predecessor Lee Myung-bak ‘s time, but Park has not deviated from Lee’s confrontational approach.
Virtually all channels of inter-Korean dialogue have been shut down.
Also in her New York speech, Park softened her rhetoric but conveyed the same message to Japan.
Park stressed wartime sexual violence against women tarnishes humanitarianism regardless of time and region.
Her remarks were seen as an apparent bid to criticize Tokyo, which has been in historical disputes with Seoul over Japan’s sexual enslavement of Korean women during World War II.
A researcher at the Sejong Institute, a global policy think-tank in Seoul, cast skepticism over President Park’s real intentions to improve the strained inter-Korean relations.
He referred to Park’s Dresden Initiative aimed at narrowing social gaps between the two Koreas in the lead up to unification.
“North Korea may find Park’s U.N. speech offensive,” he said on condition of anonymity. “I understand she was emphasizing inter-Korean integration and narrowing the gap between the two Koreas, but her remarks could provoke Pyongyang and thwart her efforts for peace on the Korean Peninsula.”
Earlier on Thursday, Pyongyang’s state-controlled propaganda website, Uriminzokkiri, condemned Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se for proposing holding inter-Korean dialogue on human rights issues related to the totalitarian state.
Yun made the proposal during a foreign ministerial meeting between South Korea, the United States and Japan in New York, Wednesday (local time) on the sidelines of the U.N. Assembly.
It was aimed at drumming up international support for a U.N. resolution on North Korea’s human right violations.
In terms of Korea-Japan ties, another Sejong Institute researcher said Park’s U.N. speech is believed to provide guidance for the foreign ministerial meeting between Korea and Japan today in New York. However, he added, “It remains to be seen whether her efforts will be successful.”
Yun and his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida are expected to discuss ways to settle historical disputes, including Tokyo’s wartime sex slavery during its colonial rule.
They are also expected to share ideas on a Seoul-Tokyo summit, which Premier Shinzo Abe proposed in a letter delivered to Park on Sept. 19.
Park has said resolving historical issues should precede any summit.