By Jun Ji-hye
President Park Geun-hye will seek to gain cooperation in resolving North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs as she embarks on a three-day historic tour to Iran Sunday, according to officials.
In addition to her summit with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Park’s office is also pushing to arrange a meeting between her and Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a former president and considered the country’s most powerful figure.
North Korea and Iran have allegedly maintained close relations, especially in the development of nuclear materials. Iran has agreed not to develop nuclear weapons, and so international sanctions on the country were lifted Jan. 16.
From the government’s point of view, it will gain considerably if Park manages to elicit expressions of concern over Pyongyang’s nuclear programs from the Iranian leaders during her visit ― the first by a Korean president since Seoul and Teheran established diplomatic ties in 1962.
Such expectation comes as China, the North’s traditionally ally, has already expressed concern over the North’s programs and cooperated in harsher sanctions imposed on the isolated state by the United Nations Security Council in March. The government believes that Iran’s cooperation will maximize the pressure on the North.
President Park has called on Pyongyang to follow in Tehran’s footstep to avoid further international isolation.
Commenting on the trip, Robert Einhorn, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and former special adviser on nonproliferation and arms control to the U.S. secretary of state, said that there are several messages the President needs to convey to the Islamic republic.
“Park should urge Iranians to show restraint in the ballistic missile activity area,” he said, calling Iran’s missile tests “destabilizing.”
Einhorn, who also served as a U.S. negotiator on the Iranian nuclear issue, said that Park should emphasize to the Iranian leadership that South Korea’s security would be adversely affected by collaboration between North Korea and Iran on either nuclear or missile technologies.
But Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies, stressed that the government should also take cautious attitude in dealing with the North Korean issue in Iran, saying that a number of complicated issues and interests are involved.
“It won’t be easy for Park to find a breakthrough in just one visit,” he said. “A message like denuclearization through dialogue could possibly be produced.”