This is the second and last of two articles about what changes are needed in President Park Geun-hye’s foreign policy toward Japan and North Korea to promote her “Unification is a bonanza” initiative. ― ED.
By Yi Whan-woo
President Park Geun-hye’s principle of “trustpolitik” fails to outline how to win trust from North Korea in South Korea’s preparation for possible unification, according to critics, Wednesday.
Based on such a blurry blueprint, the pundits forecast Park’s two signature North Korean policies, namely the Dresden Initiative and Presidential Committee for Unification Preparation, will continue to provoke Pyongyang which claims they are intended to tear down its regime.
The experts urged the Park government to “go back to basics” and enhance government-level dialogue and collaboration between civil sectors to make unification a “bonanza” for the two countries.
“The Park administration’s ‘trustpolitik’ is excellent in the way that it realizes the importance of trust-building process for inter-Korean reconciliation,” Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies. “However, it has become nominal because it lacks concrete measures to carry out such steps.”
Paik Hak-soon, the director of the Center for North Korean Studies at the Sejong Institute, a global policy think tank here, agreed.
“Trust between the two Koreas is a ‘must have,’ because otherwise unification will be a ‘fiasco’ for a unified Korea.”
In a speech during her March visit to Dresden, Germany, the President unveiled initiatives for humanity, co-prosperity and integration on the Korean Peninsula.
In August, she also launched the unification preparation committee to implement her Dresden Initiative. The goals include South Korea investing in infrastructure-building along with the construction of multi-farming complexes in North Korea, collaborative projects with China and Russia, and joint natural resource development projects.
Instead, Pyongyang has denounced Seoul, claiming that the policies intended to “forcibly assimilate the North.”
Yang said the President unnecessarily stressed the extreme life conditions in North Korea in her Dresden speech. She mentioned Pyongyang’s nuclear threats and increasing number of North Korean defectors to explain the need for inter-Koran unification. “If Park ever had an idea about how to win trust from North Korea, she would not have recklessly touched on those issues on the global stage,” he said. “It’s not surprising that the totalitarian state is skeptical of Park’s North Korea policies.”
Paik agreed with Yang, claiming the Dresden Initiative is based on an assumption that a collapse of the Kim Jong-un regime may occur in the near future.
“The initiative was introduced after the Kim executed his uncle, Jang Song-thaek,” said the Sejong Institute researcher.
He was referring to the execution of Jang, the regime’s No. 2 man, in December last year following concerns grew that the young North Korean leader may lose control of the regime.
However, Kim managed to carry out political and economic reform since then and is also trying to open its door to the outside world.
“Neither the Dresden Initiative nor the unification preparation committee mention about capitalizing on Kim-led economic reforms and solely maps out South Korea’s plan,” Paid said. “Seoul needs to show that it regard Pyongyang as a dialogue partner.”