By Chung Min-uck
Despite South Korea’s offer to “conditionally” lift comprehensive economic sanctions imposed on North Korea four years ago, Pyongyang not only ignored the proposal but also launched a verbal attack on President Park Geun-hye’s latest initiatives for inter-Korean unification.
Moderating Seoul’s long-held position, Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae said in a National Assembly session, Friday, South Korea was “willing” to lift the sanctions, but that the North must take some actions for this to happen.
These would include Pyongyang admitting and apologizing for the sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan on March 26, 2010, and implementing appropriate measures to prevent such an incident happening again.
Following the incident that claimed the lives of 46 South Korean sailors, Seoul imposed the “May 24” blanket sanctions against the North that halted all inter-Korean economic cooperation except for operations at the joint industrial complex in the border city of Gaeseong.
Since then, the May 24 measure has remained an obstacle to improving cross-border ties because the sanctions stopped South Korea from investing in the cash-strapped North.
Pyongyang has long denied any involvement in the incident.
On Saturday, the powerful National Defense Commission criticized President Park’s “Dresden Doctrine” that offers the North a package of proposals including unprecedented large-scale infrastructure investment.
The offer was made during Park’s state visit to Germany last month. But the proposal would only be carried out if the North decides to scrap its nuclear weapons programs.
“The Dresden Doctrine is a nonsensical statement made by an anti-reunification element deceiving the public with hypocrisy and deception as she offered no solution, ignorant of the present state of the North-South relations,” said a spokesman for the defense commission.
“The proposal is irrelevant and indifferent to the improvement and development of the inter-Korean relations,” the spokesman said in a statement carried by the state-run official news outlet the Korean Central News Agency.
The statement also claimed that Park’s policy on unification with North Korea was designed to hurt the ideology and socialist system of the North, calling it logic to achieve North-South unification “via a merger.”
According to the unification ministry, the Dresden Doctrine cannot be carried out fully without the lifting of the May 24 sanctions.
The policy calls for gradually increasing cooperation with the North, beginning with activating humanitarian programs such as the inter-Korean family reunions to supporting the economy, and finally to political issues including unification.
“With the reaching of an agreement on North Korea’s nuclear issue not looking good, I believe the North is at the moment showing no will to improve ties with the South,” said Kim Yong-hyun, a professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University.