(Editor's Note: Inter-Korean dialogue is being resumed in various sectors. The organizations to which North Korean delegates attending inter-Korean meetings belong and their job titles are somewhat confusing. The North's organizational system for dialogue with the South is introduced here.)

The undisclosed real man with power in the North Korean delegation that attended the just-finished 5th round of inter-Korean ministerial talks in Seoul was Kwon Ho Ung, (44), according to officials here. Despite his official title as an entourage member, Kwon is reputedly the North's negotiator of the next generation, and he raised most of the items on Pyongyang’s agenda such as its request for electricity from the South, giving the impression that he was the only member of the delegation authorized by the North's leadership to make concessions, officials said. Kwon conducted behind-the-scenes negotiations with the South. Better known by his pseudonym "Kwon Min," he carries the official title of councilor to the Asia-Pacific Peace Committee, though his actual job title is senior guidance member of the Unification Front Department (UFD) of the Workers' Party Central Committee.

The UFD takes charge of overt relations with the South, such as dialogue and exchanges. When UFD members take part in official contacts with the South, they use the visiting cards of UFD's auxiliary organizations including the Asia-Pacific Peace Committee, depending on the nature of an occasion.

UFD's kernel auxiliary organization is the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland (CPRF). A de facto enlargement and front body of the UFD, encompassing all its staff including the chief, the CPRF plays a principal role in Pyongyang's dialogue with Seoul, controlling its auxiliary organizations divided into political, economic, social and cultural affairs. While its chair has been left vacant since 1991 when chairman Huh Dam died, the committee's deputy chairmanships are kept by a number of ranking UFD officials including director Kim Yong Sun, first deputy director Im Dong Ok, and deputy directors An Kyong Ho and Jun Kum Jin.

The CPRF's functions are focused on the political sector including inter-Korean governmental meetings. This is confirmed by the fact that Kim Ryong Song who headed the Pyongyang delegation to the 5th round of inter-Korean ministerial talks is a UFD deputy director and deputy director at the CPRF’s secretariat. In the talks he identified himself as senior cabinet councilor, a post Pyongyang maintains has been created due to the lack of a ministry in the North equivalent to the South's Unification Ministry, the hierarchical status and role of which are equivalent to those of the South's unification minister.

Another sector the CPRF concentrates on is unification issues. The National Alliance for the Country's Reunification sponsored the "2001 National Unification Grand Festival" held in Pyongyang on August 15 with delegates invited from South Korea and overseas. The sponsor's North Korean chair was An Kyong Ho, UFD deputy chairman and CPRF deputy chairman and chief secretary, and its vice chairman was Kim Ryong Song. Inter-Korean Red Cross talks are also led by the CPRF. Choi Sung Chol and Rhee Kum Chol who took part in the Red Cross talks in their capacity as standing committee members of the (North) Korean Red Cross Society central committee are a department director and a member of the CPRF secretariat, respectively.

The CPRF does not play a frontal role at inter-Korean meetings dealing with such specialized areas as the economy, military and religion, however, but coordinates strategy and tactics behind the scenes, using its officials attending meetings as entourage members. The National Economy Cooperation Federation - another UFD auxiliary organization dealing with business relations with the South - is placed under the jurisdiction of the Trade Ministry, in which the CPRF merely ensures that its activities do not deviate from the regime's strategy toward the South. Accordingly, the only senior CPRF official assigned to the National Economy Cooperation Federation as an advisor is CPRF secretariat's deputy bureau director Huh Hyok Pil. The same applies to military talks. Taking charge of inter-Korean military negotiations is the Ministry of People's Armed Forces, whose delegations include one or two CPRF officials whose job is to coordinate strategy and tactics.

UFD officials thus outwardly identify themselves as CPRF staff and carry visiting cards of UFD auxiliary organizations that have been established to deal with political, economic and social affairs, overseas compatriots and external relations, as the occasion demands.

The Asia-Pacific Peace Committee - ranking next to the CPRF - takes charge of joint business projects with the South including the Mount Kumgang tourism project; and normalization of relations with Japan. Since the North-South summit talks in June 2000, the Asia-Pacific Peace Committee has transferred a considerable portion of its functions involving business affairs with the South to the National Economy Cooperation Federation. The UFD controls the National Democratic Front of South Korea in addition to the Asia-Pacific Peace Committee as auxiliary organizations in the political sector. In the social sector covering religion, laborers, academicians and students, the UFD controls organizations such as the Council of National Reconciliation, Korean Religious Council and Tangun National Unity Council. Among its organs involving external affairs and overseas Korean residents are the Asia-Pacific Peace Committee and the Committee for Aiding Overseas Compatriots.

The leadership and frontal organizations of the North's projects involving the South thus all belong to the UFD, whose staff members are associated with either the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Fatherland or the Asia-Pacific Peace Committee.

(Lee Kyo Kwan, haedang@chosun.com )