ed Koreas fail to meet
Both sides must stop childish fight, look to future
South and North Korea failed to resume high-level talks on Thursday, as proposed by Seoul. Yet it is too soon to give up entirely because the Koreas can rearrange their meeting for early next month, as agreed to during a visit here by three senior North Korean officials on Oct. 4.
As things stand now, however, prospects for progress remain dim. The attitudes of both governments are so petty and childish that it is hard to tell which side is worse.
Pyongyang is primarily responsible for the abandoned talks because the isolated regime called for Seoul to choose either the inter-Korean dialogue or continue allowing anti-Pyongyang activists to send propaganda leaflets attached to balloons across the demilitarized zone. This ultimatum was neither logical nor desirable for advancing dialogue.
The releasing of balloons that have handbills attached by activist groups, including people who escaped from the North, is not new, although Pyongyang recently displayed hysteria over this. The Koreas can discuss this matter, too, if talks resume between their vice ministers. Pyongyang’s claim is a way of forcing the other side to a point of submission even before the delegates sit down face to face, a demand that is hardly acceptable for the government in Seoul.
No less incomprehensible is the rigid stance adopted by the Park Geun-hye administration.
Meeting with Lee Hee-ho, wife of the late President Kim Dae-jung, at Cheong Wa Dae Wednesday, President Park courteously rejected a request made by the former first lady that the government stop the balloons being sent across the border, on basis that there are no legal grounds to curb the activists’ right to freedom of expression. One of Lee’s entourage informed Park that the government could prevent such activities based on the South-North Exchange and Cooperation Law, but the president offered no response to this.
Most Koreans know that the government’s citing of the need to respect freedom of speech is just an excuse. Even now, Korean smartphone users are becoming "cyber exiles,” opting to use mobile messenger services operated by foreign providers instead of those offered by local companies, out of fear of that the government is conducting surveillance of the latter.
The shameful show of one-upmanship by Seoul and Pyongyang indicates both are not as eager to resume dialogue as they appear to be, at least for now. "We will not curry favor with North Korea just to reopen dialogue, which is degrading to the nation’s dignity and status,” said an official at the Unification Ministry. What this official and the entire administration should know is that continuing to cede the South’s military sovereignty to its chief ally, the United States, is a far bigger loss of national dignity and pride. Those who suffer most from such inter-Korean confrontations and tensions are none other than the people in two Koreas.
There are far more important tasks to deal with than this shortsighted and narrow-minded war of nerves. Seoul should to maintain a far broader point of view, while Pyongyang must drop its infantile adherence to the personality cult that perpetuates the dynastic leadership of the Kim family.
At stake now is whether the Korean people can maintain self-centeredness and become leaders in the political maelstrom underway in this region and across the world, or be swept away by it.