ed Conflict over condolence

Time for two Koreas to trust each other

A private group, including a former first lady, left for Pyongyang Monday to pay condolences to deceased North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. It would have been far better for future inter-Korean relationship had Seoul sent an official delegation, as this page has urged. Diplomacy should put calm reason and cold calculation ahead of moral arguments and emotional outbursts.

North Korea might as well feel sorry, not least because Pyongyang had sent ranking officials to mourn the demise of two former South Korean presidents, Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun. Among countries as among individuals, however, calls of condolence should be voluntary, not forced.

It is regrettable in this regard that a North Korean propaganda organ has demanded South Korea pay respect to their dead leader, stressing, in a thinly-veiled threat, it would be a litmus test of Seoul’s sincerity and determine future inter-Korean ties.

It was such impatience and scare tactics of Pyongyang as well as the rigid inflexibility of the Lee Myung-bak administration that have unnecessarily aggravated their relationship.

Pyongyang needs to be in Seoul’s shoes, if once in a thousand times. Desirable or not, there is a clear limitation to what the conservative Lee administration can do with respect to making inter-Korean gesture, politically and ideologically. The official expression of condolence for North Korean people and permitting the private delegation’s visit could be seen as progress from 1994 when Kim Il-sung died and Seoul put the whole nation on high alert.

There is another important difference North Korean leadership should take note of. Seventeen years ago, college students here attempted to hoist the North Korean flag to mourn the death of the founder of the communist state. Now, some leftist students trying to set up altars for Kim Jong-il became instant targets of cyber attacks from their friends and foes alike. South Korea today is not what it was 17 years ago, in both good ways and bad for North Korea.

Likewise, the North needs to take the South’s words in a more favorable sense. Seoul, for instance, concluded the ultimate responsibility for torpedoing of a South Korean battleship Cheonan and artillery attacks on a West Sea island in 2010 lies with the deceased North Korean leader. Seen negatively, this can be defamation of the senior Kim. From a more positive angle, however, it reflects Seoul’s wish to bury the past and start anew with the junior Kim.

This is the worst moment for Koreas to find fault with each other’s words and intentions based on past grievances. Mutual trust does not just happen through rhetorical emphasis.

All this does not mean, however, that Seoul can remain complacent with the relative calm, while just studying the faces of the G2, namely the United States and China.

China has just told four other surrounding powers not to provoke Pyongyang. That Beijing has posed itself as the patron of North Korea, as it enters unchartered territory under the leadership of a young, inexperienced man, tells much.

Unless the leaders of the two Koreas trust each other, they will have to watch others determine the fate of 75 million Koreans.