Unification minister to make rare US visit

By Kang Seung-woo

Ryoo Kihl-jae Unification Minister

Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae plans to visit the United States next month to discuss its policy toward North Korea with top U.S. officials, the government said Tuesday.

“Minister Ryoo is fine-tuning his visit to the U.S. from Dec. 8 to 14 and plans to meet with officials from the White House, the State Department and Congress and discuss its direction in the policy,” an official said.

“Ryoo will also meet with analysts from U.S. think tanks and brief them on the Korean government’s unification vision and preparations for that.”

He also plans to attend the Korea Global Forum, which will be hosted by the East Asia Institute in Washington.

It will be the third time for a unification minister to visit the U.S. since Ryoo’s predecessors Chung Dong-young and Yu Woo-ik visited there in 2005 and 2011, respectively.

During his trip, Ryoo is also expected to meet with Sydney Seiler, special envoy for the six-party nuclear talks, and U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, both of whom recently visited Pyongyang.

His visit is expected to draw a lot of attention as it comes amid lingering tense relations between Seoul and Pyongyang.

Although three top-ranking North Korean officials, led by Hwang Pyong-so, Pyongyang’s No. 2 man, visited Incheon in October, South and North Korea failed to hold the high-level talks they had agreed on.

In addition, the reclusive regime recently unexpectedly released detained American citizens Kenneth Bae and Matthew Miller, as its human rights abuses are emerging as a hot-button issue in the international community. The United Nations is attempting to take North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to the International Criminal Court. Given that, the minister plans to coordinate with the U.S. on North Korea policy.

Ahead of the unification minister’s visit, some members of the Presidential Committee for Unification Preparation will fly to the U.S. later this month in order to publicize the Park Geun-hye administration’s preparations for peaceful unification of the Korean Peninsula.

The committee was launched in July behind President Park’s “unification bonanza initiative.”

“In order to promote the government’s preparation for the Korean unification as well as its approach to the North, the committee will visit the U.S. on Nov. 30 for a week,” said Chung Chong-wook, vice chairman of the committee.

“We will hold seminars at Stanford University and the Korea Society, while meeting with U.S. government officials to introduce the moves.”