By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
For South Korea, its northern neighbor's motives for inconsistent actions ― conducting a nuclear test and test-firing missiles, while showing few signs of shutting down the iconic inter-Korean project in Gaeseong ― remain an unsolved enigma.
North Korea experts here said Wednesday that a look deep inside its key decision-makers' minds would probably help South Korea figure it out.
``Certainly there is consistency in the North's seemingly contrasting choice of actions,'' Cheong Seong-chang, director of the inter-Korean relations program at the Sejong Institute, told The Korea Times.
Cheong observed that the North's nuclear ambitions along with its unwillingness to shut down the joint enclave are not contradictory, in that both will help ensure the Stalinist country's survival.
Professor Ryoo Kihl-jae of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul said in a phone interview with The Korea Times that the North seemed to consider inter-Korean relations and security as separate issues.
``Given that North Korea allowed Gaeseong, a military heartland, to be used for the joint inter-Korean cooperation project, I assume that the North didn't see the South as posing a security threat to it,'' said the expert.
They made the comments after many South Koreans were left scratching their heads, while trying to figure out the North's contrasting signals over inter-Korean relations of late.
First, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il expressed his deep condolences over the death of former President Roh Moo-hyun.
North Korea observers here saw it as a positive step for inter-Korean relations, which have been at a stalemate after the North demanded the South accept changes in North Korean workers' salaries and conditions at the Gaeseong Industrial Complex in April.
But any thoughts that inter-Korean relations were moving in the right direction were quickly forgotten after the North conducted a second nuclear test and test-fired three missiles.
In light of those actions, North Korea experts here cautiously forecast that the escalating tensions might come at the price of shutting down of the site.
However, they were wrong again, as the pro-North Korean newspaper Choson Sinbo made it clear Tuesday that the North had no intention to forgo the revenue from the joint inter-Korean project.
The newspaper said there has been no change in the North's position of moving the joint enclave forward, indicating it has no plan to shut down the industrial park.
Asked why the North sent confusing signals, Cheong said the two issues were separate.
``The North's nuclear test and test-firing of missiles were a calculated move targeting the United States in an effort to get more concessions in future direct negotiations. Gaeseong, meanwhile, is a domestic issue involving the two Koreas and the North is very much interested in the joint enclave project due to the economic gains,'' he said.
Ryoo did not rule out the possibility of the North shutting down the site in the future because Pyongyang had said previously that it would view the South joining the U.S.-led initiative to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction as a declaration of war.