Talks on volcano

Rejecting all dialogue offers is sign of infantilism

For all its atrocities and outrageousness, North Korea has a knack for making timely moves. Pyongyang’s recent proposal for joint research into possible volcanic activity at Mt. Baekdu seems to have put Seoul on the fence ― once again.

It is definitely a part of the ``dialogue offensive” the communist regime has been staging for months to get itself out of its political and economic stalemate. Moreover, the isolationist regime has yet to admit and apologize for two attacks in the West Sea last year, for which the South should continue to press.

Nonetheless, it would be wise for Seoul to separate military and political issues on the one hand, and scientific and humanitarian ones on the other for both political and practical reasons.

Turning down all offers of talks from the North under the pretext of West Sea conflicts would make the South Korean government appear less than confident let alone shortsighted and narrow-minded. Seoul, which is in an advantageous position vis-à-vis Pyongyang in almost all ways, has few good reasons to suffer damage to its image and reputation.

In more practical terms, Mt. Baekdu’s potential eruption should never be ignored. If some Chinese volcanologists’ predictions turn into reality by any chance, a disaster up to 1,000 times more destructive than the one that hit Iceland and Northern Europe last year would attack not just the Korean Peninsula but the whole of Northeast Asia.

As they say, geologists’ ``sometime soon” may range between a few years and a few hundred years. As far as a natural calamity is concerned, however, it would only be human folly to be certain, as we are witnessing across the East Sea, although even experts differ on the direct relationship between earthquakes and volcanic activity.

There are other reasons South Korea should show more eagerness. As many South Korean who toured the nation’s ``spiritual Holy Land” agree, China has all but taken even the North Korean side of the 2,744-meter mountain with a caldera lake called Cheonji.

Any further hesitation would only end up adding momentum to China’s claims, while leaving Seoul out of the possible trilateral forum among China, Japan and North Korea.

This is the time to have a broader and longer perspective.