Cheong Wa Dae poor in handling NK delegates

By Kang Seung-woo

Cheong Wa Dae appears to have been clumsy in its handling of a surprise visit by a high-powered North Korean delegation Saturday.

First, the presidential office said that the northern delegation declined an offer to meet President Park Geun-hye.

This honesty is laudable but the admission dents the prestige of President Park.

In other words, it would be have been better not making the first move by offering the invitation in the first place, and, then after it was done, keeping its mouth zipped.

But obviously judging by the way it behaved, Park’s aides, if not the President herself, give the impression that they were very anxious to make progress in dealing with the North.

National Defense Commission Vice Chairman Hwang Pyong-so, who led the northern delegation, is regarded as No. 2 in the North’s chain of command. He reports directly to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

The delegation that also included Choe Ryong-hae, Secretary of the Worker’s Party of Korea and Kim Yang-gon, Director of the North Korean United Front Department, visited Incheon for the closing ceremony of the 2014 Asian Games and reached an agreement to hold a second round of senior-level talks in late October or early November.

“The government should have kept what happened secret,” said Bae Jong-chan, chief director at political pollster Research and Research.

Chang Yong-seok, a senior researcher at the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies at Seoul National University said there could be a motive behind Cheong Wa Dae’s actions. “Should a rare meeting end without any efforts to mend fences amid strained inter-Korean relations, there would be much criticism of the government.“

In 2009, Kim Ki-nam, then a secretary of the party, and Kim Yang-gon came to Seoul to attend the funeral of late President Kim Dae-jung and overstayed to meet then President Lee Myung-bak.