By Kim Tae-gyu
President Park Geun-hye’s “Korean Peninsula Trust Process” will be put to first major test this week as the two Koreas sit down for a two-day dialogue today in Seoul.
Hopes run high on the carrot-and-stick approach aimed at engaging the North without tolerating its aggression because it has played a role in achieving the first senior-level inter-governmental talks in six years.
However, experts point out that there are many potential stumbling blocks that can fray inter-Korean relations once again, with the two having even failed to agree on the specific agenda.
In this climate, they say that Seoul should not bite off more than it can chew.
“Rather than pressing the North too hard on fundamental topics like its nuclear program, our government needs to work on a very practical agenda,” said Prof. Yang Moo-jin of the University of North Korean Studies.
Pyongyang’s nuclear ambition was a bone of contention in inter-Korean relations ― they prevented the previous Lee Myung-bak administration from contacting the North.
The issue continued this year even after President Park’s inauguration with the North’s third atomic test on Feb. 12 and the resultant U.N. sanctions giving rise to escalating tension on the Korean Peninsula.
The Southern negotiators’ strategy is seemingly in line with Yang’s advice as shown by their stance in the working-level talks that finished early Monday.
They focused on topics that could be easily tackled in tandem with the basic philosophy of Park’s trust-building process ― grappling with minor matters eventually leads to solutions of major ones.
Many observers expect that the two will be able to easily agree on reunions of families separated by the Korean War (1950-53) as the two sides understand the urgency of the humanitarian program.
The Southern delegation is expected to try to hold the reunions on a regular basis while its Northern counterpart is predicted to prefer one-off events.
But the reopening of the inter-Korean joint industrial park in Gaeseong is likely to be trickier because the South wants to get a promise from the North that closure of the complex will not happen again.
The Gaeseong zone where 123 South Korean companies employed 53,000 North Korean workers stopped operations this April after Pyongyang pulled out its people there amid the rising tension on the Korean Peninsula.
“The North also appears to want to normalize the operations of Gaeseong, but it will not easily give in to the request for additional measures to prevent the recurrence of its closure,” a Seoul analyst said.
“The first report card of Park’s trust-building process will be by and large decided by how Gaeseong is discussed. By contrast, the tours to Mt. Geumgang are not that urgent.”