Gov't hit for excessive secretiveness in handling North

By Jun Ji-hye

The government has been criticized for adopting a secretive attitude regarding talks held Wednesday between generals of the two Koreas, despite a previous promise made to improve transparency in the handling of inter-Korean issues.

Even when the discussions were underway at the truce village of Panmunjeom, Cheong Wa Dae, and the unification and defense ministries remained silent on the matter.

“We cannot confirm that,” was their repeated answer to flurries of questions from reporters.

The situation became increasingly awkward for the government because many cable news channels and online media were already reporting about the inter-Korean meeting. Their news source was Rep. Park Jie-won of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy.

At the unification ministry, some reporters even shouted at the deputy spokeswoman who failed to confirm that the meeting was taking place.

The defense ministry made an official announcement about the meeting at about 4 p.m., after the talks ended.

One ministry official explained, “The government decided to withhold the information because Seoul and Pyongyang currently face a delicate situation due to recent military clashes in the West Sea and Yeoncheon, Gyeonggi Province.”

He added that, “The South and North agreed to hold the meeting behind closed doors.”

However, given the need to retain confidentiality, there was criticism over the government’s adoption of a “dubious” stance in dealing with an inter-Korean issue.

In February, when a first round of high-level talks between the two Koreas was held, the government opened the process of setting it up to the media, even though the Stalinist state demanded a closed-door meeting. At the time, the government emphasized “transparency” as the reason for disclosing the information.

The unification ministry added to the controversy after it was revealed that it gave a false press briefing on Monday when it said, “Nothing has been decided regarding a second-round of high-level talks.” Tuesday’s briefing was no different.

On Wednesday, however, it was learned that the government had already offered on Monday to meet the North on Oct. 30.

Ministry of Unification spokesman Lim Byeong-cheol explained, “We were planning to make an official announcement after receiving a reply from the North.”

Experts say that such a secretive attitude reflects President Park Geun-hye’s concerns over the fruitless results from her inter-Korean policies as she approaches her third year in office.

“Park has failed to achieve any improvement in inter-Korean relations while in office. The government now seems to be focusing more on the fact that there have been no particular results,” said Bae Jong-chan, a senior analyst at Research and Research, an opinion pollster.

The government might not want to unnecessarily provoke the North, for fear of a possible breakdown in the second round of high-levels talks, he added.

Critics argued that such dishonesty could make it additionally difficult to gain public trust in the government as it pushes ahead with inter-Korean policies.

In response to the controversy, government officials explained that inter-Korean matters are very sensitive because of the differing political systems of both sides, so it should be taken into consideration that the government sometimes needs to refrain from releasing such information.

In 2009, when Park’s predecessor Lee Myung-bak was in power, then Labor Minister Lim Tae-hee and Kim Yang-gon, in charge of Pyongyang’s relations with Seoul, secretively met in Singapore to discuss whether to hold an inter-Korean summit.

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