Koreas should restart at another working-group meeting
There have been
turns and twists in the inter-Korean dialogue. Yet never have the two Koreas cancelled scheduled talks in a dispute over who should lead their delegations - until Wednesday, that is. Both sides seem to have forgotten how to start after a six-year break or have been in too big a hurry without making
preparations, or both.
It would not be of much use to discuss which side is to blame more because both Koreas are responsible for bungling the hard-won opportunity. If anything, however, Seoul might have to shoulder more, if a little, of the responsibility, as it deviated from the previous pattern.
Of course North Korea was brazen enough to call for the South to send a Cabinet minister as the chief negotiator while it appointed a vice-ministerial level official to head its delegation. But South Korea was not much better in this regard, as it pinpointed the North’s Kim Yang-gon, an official
to deputy prime minister in overall charge of inter-Korean affairs, to come to Seoul.
North Korea ignored international standards in diplomatic protocol, and South Korea made an even more unusual move of “
ing” the other side’s leading figure to “adjust participants’ levels.”
North Korean officials might think they did what they have done in the 21 previous ministerial talks, but they failed to bear in mind one thing: the new administration in Seoul will not continue the past practice of tolerating the mismatch of participants in inter-Korean talks. President Park Geun-hye has made it clear that officials from the two sides should be of similar grades in their respective governments, one of the points she wants to rectify in building a future relationship between the Koreas.
Few can
President Park for adhering to principles, common sense and normality, but she might as well mix them with some doses of flexibility and tolerance when necessary. To be sure, North Korea is pressed more for inter-Korean dialogue for diplomatic and economic reasons, and some South Korean officials might think it a good opportunity to “reset” the balance between the Koreas by putting the North in its place. Past experiences show, however, that North Korea bolted from the dialogue table if it thinks the South attempted to hurt its pride.
At stake is the fate of President Park’s “trustpolitik,” which is in danger of running aground even before setting sail.
In a survey on her 100th day in office, President Park got her highest marks for diplomacy and inter-Korean relationship. But Park must make no mistakes in interpreting these results: the high popular support reflected people’s high expectations, not her accomplishments, in this area. Popularity will go up in smoke in no time if she continues to stick to little things and attain little in substance. She has too far to go before making genuine progress in this area to get stuck by focusing on trifles such as the administrative levels of negotiators.
President Park should tell her diplomatic team to reopen a working-group meeting with North Koreans, and focus on the most urgent issue - the reopening of a joint factory park.
Koreans know that whoever sits at the dialogue table, it is the top leaders of both Koreas who will make the actual bargaining.
This is The Korea Times editorial for Thursday, June 13, 2013.
※ 다음에 나오는 문제들은 본 사설에 나오는 중요한 어휘들로 구성된 토익, 토플, 텝스 기출 및 예상 문제 입니다.
※ Choose the one word or phrase that best keeps the meaning of the highlighted part.
1. Behind those apparently
smiles are countless fears.
① self-contented
② modest
③ diffident
④ humble
2. A moment's reflection is sufficient to show that no art or craft, however primitive, could have been invented or maintained without the
of science.
① experiments
② principles
③ hypotheses
④ applications
3. His remarks are
to an insult in this case.
① equable
② equivocal
③ equivalent
④ equitable
4. Electrical energy may be divided into two components
as positive and negative.
① confused
② designated
③ accumulated
④ separated
5. He is just one of those fanatical right-wing preachers who blame everything on
humanism.
① hedonistic
② sarcastic
③ mundane
④ masochistic
[해설 및 정답]
1. [번역] 겉보기로 나타나는 그러한 자족하는 미소의 뒤에는 무수한 두려움이 도사리고 있다.
[어휘] complacent 자기만족의, 자기도취의(self-satisfied, self-contented) complacency 자기 만족(=self-satisfaction)
② 겸손한 ④ 겸손한(modest); 천한
[정답] ①
2. [번역] 아무리 원시적이더라도, 과학의
가 없었더라면 어떤 예술이나 기술도 발명이 되거나 유지될 수 없었을 것이라는 보여주는 데는 한 순간만 숙고하는 것으로도 충분하다.
[정답] ②
3. [번역] 그의 발언은 이 경우에서는 모욕적인 언사
.
[정답] ③
4. [번역] 전기에너지는 양극과 음극으로
두 가지 구성부분으로 나뉘어질 수 있다.
[어휘]
designate 지적, 명시하다(indicate, specify); ~라 칭하다, 명명하다
① confuse 혼란 시키다 ③ accumulate 축적하다 ④ separate 분리시키다
5. [번역] 그는
인본주의라는데 토대를 두고 모든 것을 비난하는 우익의 광신적인 설교자의 한 사람에 지나지 않는다.