Minister's visit to Germany draws ire of Pyongyang

By Yi Whan-woo

Hong Yong-pyo

Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo’s visit to Germany to join celebrations on the 25th anniversary of the European nation’s unification is drawing criticism from North Korea.

Pyongyang’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea (CPRK) recently accused Hong, Seoul’s point man on inter-Korean affairs, of visiting there to learn how to “forcibly absorb” the North.

Hong embarked on his trip Wednesday to Frankfurt where millions of people from Germany and abroad are expected to gather from Oct. 2-4 and join a festival to mark the unification of West and East Germany on Oct. 3, 1990.

Hong will meet Iris Gleicke, the German government’s representative for “new” federal states, or the former East Germany, on Oct. 3 after attending a ceremony to celebrate a single Germany.

He is also scheduled to meet officials from the European Union, the German parliament as well as those from the German side of the Korean-German Advisory Committee on Unification before leaving for home on Oct. 6.

The CPRK suspects that Hong took orders from his “ranking official” to learn ways of bolstering South Korea’s bid to bring the Korean Peninsula together through assimilation, according to the Ministry of Unification.

It said that the CPRK, which deals with Seoul-Pyongyang affairs, also denounced Hong for “being negligent” in not carrying out the details of the most recent inter-Korean agreement and instead taking a trip to overseas.

Under their peace accord on Aug. 25, the two Koreas are preparing for the reunion of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War from Oct. 20-26.

Seoul also has been pursuing high-level talks with Pyongyang by Oct. 10 in line with their Aug. 25 deal. It is believed that Hong’s trip to Germany will inevitably force Seoul to delay such talks.

The CPRK’s announcement came after it condemned President Park Geun-hye on Tuesday for addressing her concerns over North Korea’s possible military provocations and its nuclear program.

It threatened to call off the reunion of the war-divided families despite the fact that their numbers have dwindled over the past few years

The unification ministry urged Pyongyang to refrain from making such threats.

“We ask North Korea to immediately stop its threats and unilateral condemnation and to sincerely honor the inter-Korean deal,” ministry spokesman Jeong Joon-hee said during a regular media briefing, Wednesday.

Jeong said that the military regime should not put the humanitarian issue at risk for political reasons.