Candidates’ shift toward NK engagement draws concern

By Chung Min-uck

Experts are concerned that both liberal and conservative presidential candidates are leaning too much toward a policy of engagement with North Korea as part of campaign tactics geared at signaling a departure from the hard-line policies employed by President Lee Myung-bak.

What matters, they say, is that the major candidates tend to overlook Pyongyang’s belligerence and its adamant stance not to apologize for the two fatal attacks it launched against the South in 2010, coupled with fears of it conducting a possible third nuclear test.

“I am really worried about the candidates’ engagement pledges, which are questionable in terms of feasibility,” said Kim Seok-hyang, a professor at Ewha Womans University’s Graduate School of North Korean studies. “Pyongyang could later easily use them as leverage over Seoul.”

Rep. Moon Jae-in, the presidential candidate of the Democratic United Party (DUP), outlined his tentative North Korea policy in a speech during the fifth anniversary of the Oct. 4 inter-Korean Joint Declaration signed under the former Roh Moo-hyun administration.

If elected, Moon plans to hold a North-South summit meeting in his first year in office and come up with a joint statement with leaders of the six-party talks, aimed to establish peace and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, by 2014. He also wants to set up an organization to implement the statement by the end of his term.

Moon also firmly expressed his desire to continue the policies carried out by late former presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun. He served as chief of staff in the Roh administration.

Meanwhile, the DUP candidate was silent about Pyongyang’s two provocative attacks in 2010 that killed 50 South Koreans.

“As soon as I heard what he said, I felt Moon would be locked up on his own words if he becomes the president,” said the professor.

A foreign affairs expert, pleading anonymity, said candidates running for the nation’s top elected post cannot but withdraw from the now tough stance against Pyongyang in a bid to earn more votes in the Dec. 19 presidential poll.

“Average people now want reconciliation with the North after five years of volatility,” said the expert. “Even the conservative candidate is leaning toward an engagement policy. This is sheer populism.”

The ruling Saenuri Party’s presidential candidate Rep. Park Geun-hye has stressed combined efforts of “responding forcefully against North Korea’s provocations” and “remaining open to new opportunities.”

“Park’s North Korea policy is different from the rigid one of the Lee administration,” said Yun Byung-se, a senior foreign policy advisor to the conservative candidate. “The current policy toward Pyongyang needs to evolve. Though Pyongyang’s change in stance is important Seoul should change as well.”

Some experts claim Park should have stuck to the current hard-line policy to send a message of consistency in Seoul’s North Korea policy regardless of perceived public opinion.

“The liberals say the Lee administration has squandered five years of inter-Korean relations. But the strained inter-Korea relationship is mainly due to Pyongyang’s attitude,” said professor Kim. “It could have been a lesson for Pyongyang that Seoul will not support its regime if promises are broken.”

Meanwhile, independent presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo is yet to publicly comment on his North Korea policies. However, the entrepreneur-turned-politician is believed to be sharing Moon’s policy of prioritizing reconciliation.

Many observers say Seoul will become more flexible in regards to Pyongyang regardless of who takes power.

It is, however, natural to infer that all three candidates will seek to push forward demands for an unconditional renunciation of the North’s nuclear plans. They also plan to carry out multilateral approaches, involving key players such as the United States and China, in seeking a breakthrough in inter-Korean relations.

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