By Yi Whan-woo
The opposition parties called on the government to try to mend relations with North Korea, Wednesday, on the occasion of the 16th anniversary of the signing of a historic inter-Korean declaration.
The main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea (MPK) asked President Park Geun-hye to resume dialogue with the Kim Jong-un regime in line with the June 15 declaration that called for peaceful unification of the two Koreas.
Smaller opposition parties ― the People’s Party and the Justice Party ― joined the MPK to demand the government inherit the spirit of the joint declaration.
The declaration signed between then-President Kim Dae-jung and then-North Korean leader Kim Jong-il during the first inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang.
“The government should keep in mind that change through dialogue was the key idea of the declaration,” MPK spokesman Lee Jae-kyung said.
The People’s Party spokesman Rep. Son kum-ju said that civic exchanges should be allowed first to make a breakthrough in the stalled relations, adding, “We’ll otherwise not be able to move forward for unification.”
Justice Party spokesman Han Chang-min warned that President Park’s hard-line policy will only bring bigger risks to the peninsula.
“Her signature theory of Unification as a Jackpot can only be realized if the government recovers the spirit of the June 15 declaration,” he said.
Han also stressed the importance of a subsequent declaration announced during the second inter-Korean summit on Oct. 4, 2007, in Pyongyang.
Progressive-minded President Roh Moo-hyun and Kim Jong-il agreed in their declaration to better implement the June 15 declaration. Roh was Kim Dae-jung’s successor. He died in 2009.
The June 15 declaration served as a symbol of inter-Korean reconciliatory efforts, including the opening of the inter-Korean industrial park in Gaeseong, North Korea.
The Park administration shut it down and also banned all inter-Korean exchanges in response to the Kim Jong-un regime’s fourth nuclear test on Jan. 6 and a rocket launch, Feb. 7, which was suspected to be a U.N-banned ballistic missile test.
The Ministry of Unification said it slapped a fine last week on seven South Koreans who met North Koreans in Shenyang, China, in May to discuss a joint celebration of the June 15 declaration.
On Wednesday, 78 lawmakers from the three opposition parties proposed a motion together, demanding the government designate June 15 as a national memorial day.
Rep. Kim Han-jung of the MPK, who served as one of Kim Dae-jung’s presidential aides, initiated the motion.
The MPK also held a Supreme Council meeting at Imjingak, a park near the inter-Korean border in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, to commemorate the June 15 declaration.
Rep. Hong Ihk-pyo said he will open a discussion, Thursday, concerning an envisioned bill aimed at reviving the Gaeseong Industrial Complex (GIC).
Hong calls for enactment of a law that will make the government compensate 124 South Korean companies that suffered financial losses due to the shutdown of the GIC.
North Korean authorities reportedly sold raw materials, finished goods and factory machines belonging to the 124 companies abroad without their approval.
On Tuesday, MPK floor leader Rep. Woo Sang-ho met with the company owners. He asked President Park to maintain a two-track policy that deals with political and economic issues separately and urged the resumption of operations at the GIC around Aug. 15.
North Korea has been waging a peace offensive toward South Korea in what is seen as a bid to avoid accelerated international isolation after the U.N. Security Council imposed its toughest sanctions on Pyongyang March 2.