Park urges NK to return to dialogue
By Kang Seung-woo
President Park Geun-hye said Monday that she is open to holding an inter-Korean summit without any preconditions, urging North Korea to resume talks.
She also proposed a reunion of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War next month.
“I can meet anyone if it contributes to paving the way for peaceful reunification of the Korean Peninsula,” Park said in her New Year press conference at Cheong Wa Dae.
“There is no precondition for such an event.”
However, Park stressed that the North needs to show sincerity and willingness to resolve pending issues between the two sides.
“Although denuclearization is not a precondition for dialogue, we cannot meet each other and talk about peaceful reunification when the North still wants to be nuclear-armed,” she said,
Her remarks came after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un offered an inter-Korean summit on the first day of the year, bringing an “unexpected” conciliatory mood to the peninsula.
The President also unveiled her plan to distribute humanitarian aid and improve bilateral relations, laying the ground for peaceful unification.
As part of her efforts, Park called for another round of family reunions.
The two Koreas held two rounds of reunions between Feb. 20 and 25 last year at the Mt. Geumgang resort in the North, and the Park administration has sought to hold the event on a more regular basis.
“Considering that members of separated families are at an advanced age, we cannot postpone resolving the issue,” Park said.
“I hope that the North will readily respond to staging another reunion around the Lunar New Year.” The Lunar New Year falls on Feb. 19.
Amid the reconciliatory mood following Kim Jong-un’s summit offer, the U.S. government imposed fresh sanctions on the North earlier this month in response to the hacking of Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Park backed the United States’ punitive actions, describing their response as “appropriate.”
“Despite the tension between the U.S. and the North, we can hold talks with the North on our own principle of resolving inter-Korean issues through dialogue,” she said.
Pyongyang has called on Seoul to lift the “May 24“ sanctions; the President has said her government is ready to discuss doing just that if the North Korean regime returns to dialogue.
“I think that the two sides can reach an agreement if they meet each other and discuss the issue,” she said.
“Despite the South’s continuous dialogue offers, the North has yet to respond to the calls.”
North Korea observers say that Park’s address regarding the North earned positive reviews, given the fact that she did not air Pyongyang’s dirty linen in public.
“President Park did not say anything provoking and irritating to the North,” said Cheong Seong-chang, a senior fellow at the Sejong Institute.
However, Prof. Yang Moo-jin at the University of North Korean Studies said Park failed to come up with any specific plans in playing a leading role in relations with the North.
“She just repeated the government’s position on inter-Korean exchanges,” Yang said.
“Although Park said she is open to a summit with the North, this does not seem to be a response to the North Korean leader’s offer because it would have been included in Park’s statement, not an answer to a question by a reporter.“
On the issue of Japan, principally the dispute over sexual slavery, relations between Korea and Japan remain frozen. As a result, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Park have yet to have a face-to-face meeting.
“I can hold a summit with Japan, but it should be a significant and future-oriented one,” Park said.
“To do so, Japan needs to change its attitude on its history.”
She also said that the sexual enslavement of Korean women before and during World War II by the Imperial Japanese Army could be a “big burden” for Japan unless it is quickly resolved because the victims are now dying.
In 2007, more than 120 South Korean victims were alive, but the number has since dropped to 55, with their average age standing at 88.